Owner of Kentucky Derby 2024 winner Mystik Dan dedicates victory to his late father

Before he left Arkansas for Louisville to watch his horse run in Kentucky Derby 150 at Churchill Downs, Lance Gasaway had something he wanted to do.

Gasaway stopped and planted a Kentucky Derby flag at the grave of his father, Clint Gasaway, who died at the age of 85 on May 4, 2023.

Exactly one year later, Gasaway’s Mystik Dan won the “Run for the Roses” by a nose in a thrilling three-horse photo finish, edging Sierra Leone and Forever Young before an announced crowd of 156,710 at the Louisville track.

Gasaway owns Mystik Dan along with 4 G Racing’s Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway — Brent and Lance are first cousins — as well as Daniel Hamby III and Valley View Farm. Hamby and Lance Gasaway were co-breeders of Mystik Dan, sired by Goldencents out of the Colonel John mare Ma’am.

But it was Clint Gasaway who introduced his son to racing, taking Lance on the two-hour trip from their hometown of Gould, Arkansas, to Hot Springs for the meets at Oaklawn.

“To me, this is for him,” Lance Gasaway said. “Dad would have loved it. He loved the game.”

A Hall of Fame wide receiver at Arkansas at Monticello, Lance Gasaway now lives in Star City. He manages an 18,000-acre farm in Utah, owns an agricultural flying service in Arkansas as well as a pair of businesses in Pine Bluff.

He became a thoroughbred owner in 2012 and along with his father plus Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables, Gasaway owned Wells Bayou, who won the 2020 Louisiana Derby but did not make it to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. Wells Bayou recorded three wins in 11 starts and retired with $935,303 in earnings.

Gasaway and winning trainer Kenny McPeek have had an on-and-off association that was interrupted when McPeek started racing horses at Gulfstream Park instead of Arkansas. When the Lexington-based trainer returned to Oaklawn, he returned to his association with Gasaway.

“Three or four years after I got in the business, I got with Kenny,” Lance Gasaway said. “We started doing a few horses and ended up with Ma’am. It was a private purchase. And we even separated. He got a little ornery a couple of times. We always stayed friends. Every time I would come to Kentucky, I would come out and see him and go to (McPeek’s farm) Magdalena.”

In fact, Mystik Dan was foaled at Magdalena. After a fifth-place finish in the Smarty Jones, the colt broke through to win the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes by eight lengths on a muddy track at Oaklawn on Feb. 3. His third-place finish in the Arkansas Derby on March 30 didn’t deter the owners from coming on to Kentucky.

“I’m pinching myself, wondering if this is real,” Lance Gasaway said. “You just won the biggest horse race in America. Who would have ever dreamed that a little horse Ma’am, a little filly we had, and run her and breed her to a $10,000 stud fee and win the Kentucky Derby. It’s just really surreal.”

“It is surreal for sure,” Sharilyn Gasaway said. “We feel like we’re just ordinary people and we’ve got an amazing horse that God gave us.

“I feel like this horse — Kenny calls him an old soul because he’s so chill. And if you watched him walking over to the paddock, he was so chill. Nothing spooks this horse.”

“Lance and Sharilyn have been wonderful people to have involved here,” McPeek said. “They came in and decided to absorb it all and enjoy it.”

And there was nothing more enjoyable than Kentucky Derby 150.

Said Lance Gasaway, “This is a special day.”

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