Like most things, horse racing often becomes someone's passion after being introduced to it by a parent. Then, the parent and the passion become forever linked.
That is no different for Lance Gasaway, co-owner and co-breeder of Mystik Dan, who is set to run in the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 4 at Churchill Downs.
Gasaway's father, Clint, would make the nearly two-hour trek from rural Gould, Ark., to Oaklawn Park with Lance and his brother Greg. That began a life-long passion for the sport.
Gasaway co-owns Mystik Dan with Valley View Farm and 4 G Racing, which is his cousin, Brent, and wife Sharilyn Gasaway.
Lance Gasaway said he, Greg, and their friend Daniel Hamby, who is a co-breeder of Mystik Dan, were at Oaklawn in 2012 when the decision was made to get into the game.
"We were at the races one day and a guy talked to us about buying some horses," Lance Gasaway said. "He had three (Arkansas) breds. There might have been a little alcohol involved, but we bought and that started (us in) the horse racing."
Competitive by nature—a football hall of famer at the University of Arkansas at Monticello—Lance Gasaway was not going to look back. While Greg Gasaway moved away from it, Lance kept diving further into horse racing. He and his fiancé Bobbi Jo Harris enjoy being around the horses, stopping by the barns at Oaklawn on weekends to feed peppermints.
WATCH: Homebred Mystik Dan Brings Arkansas Owners to KY Derby
Lance Gasaway has had several horses in partnership, but he remembers the first that he owned outright—Character Zero, whom he claimed out of a March 8, 2015 race at Oaklawn.
"The next race he won so that pretty much hooked me," Gasaway recalled. "But the first three horses we bought (after)...I can't remember their names. They were (Arkansas) breds and two of them never even ran and the third one, he ran one time and he was done,"
But it wasn't all rough sailing.
While Mystik Dan is Gasaway's first Derby horse, he nearly had another.
In 2020, Wells Bayou finished second in the Southwest Stakes (G3) and won the Louisiana Derby (G2) before finishing fifth in the Arkansas Derby (G1). Co-owned by Gasaway in partnership with his father, Madaket Stables, and Wonder Stables, Wells Bayou retired with three wins from 11 starts and with $935,303 in earnings.
Prior to Wells Bayou, Gasaway said he'd never had a stakes horse.
"When Wells Bayou won at Keeneland the first time he ever ran, you start getting excited when you win at Keeneland as a maiden," he said. "I guess that's when the fever hit me."
Because Wells Bayou fell short of the Derby, it has tempered some of Gasaway's excitement with Mystik Dan.
"I would say I'm more thinking about making it to the race. Because with Wells Bayou, we didn't make it to the race," he said. "So the biggest thoughts I've had is, 'Hey, let's make it to the race and then we'll see what happens.'"
In recent years, Gasaway's approach to the industry has changed. He had begun working with bloodstock agent Liz Crow and stopped buying Arkansas breds and claiming horses.
Soon, he went from focusing on 2-year-olds to yearlings, at the urging of trainer Kenny McPeek.
McPeek, who trains Mystik Dan, even had a hand in his trainee's existence.
The trainer helped the ownership group acquire Ma'am, dam of Mystik Dan, and trained her for all but the final six races of her 23-start career. When the ownership planned to retire her, McPeek convinced them to breed her. He even suggested the mating to Goldencents and she foaled at McPeek's farm in Lexington. The result of that breeding is Mystik Dan.
After breaking his maiden on second asking, Mystik Dan had two fifth-place finishes before grinding out a muddy victory in the Southwest Stakes in February. He then finished third in the Arkansas Derby, behind Muth and fellow Derby entrant Just Steel. Mystik Dan will break from post No. 3 in the Derby with Brian Hernandez Jr. in the irons.
McPeek has never won the Derby; the closest he's come was with Tejano Run who finished second in 1995. A celebration of roses would be extra sweet for the trainer.
"With my fingerprints all over (the pedigree), it's really great," McPeek said. "And I trained the grandsire Harlan's Holiday too. It's a lot of gratification doing something like that for nice people like the Gasaways,"
The personal ties to the horse don't end there. Lance Gasaway said that Mystik Dan is the first runner for Hamby since Ma'am last ran in 2018. The son of Goldencents is named after Hamby's father, Dan, who sold Mystik Tape.
BEING THE LITTLE GUY
Lance Gasaway said he considers Mystik Dan's team a low-budget operation. That makes the accomplishment of having a Derby entrant all the more impressive.
"It's an honor that we got in there," Gasaway said. "There are only 20 horses; for us to have a horse that we bred ourselves, to make it to the Kentucky Derby that's just a big accomplishment. Whether we win or run dead last, we've done something that's just very seldom done.
"This horse is a good horse. ... We've got as good a shot as anybody to win this one," he added.
Winning the Kentucky Derby would be a dream come true. Standing on top of the racing world would seem like a faraway place from Gould, which, according to the 2020 United States Census, is down nearly 1,000 people to 663 from 40 years ago.
For Gasaway, who farms rice, corn, soybeans, and cotton in Star City, Ark., just 20 minutes from Gould, the only thing missing from raising a Derby winner would be his father.
Clint Gasaway died May 4 of last year at the age of 85.
That this year's Run for the Roses falls on the first anniversary of his father's death didn't escape Lance Gasaway. Before leaving for Louisville, he stopped at his father's gravesite and planted a Kentucky Derby flag.
"That would be a big story," Lance Gasaway said of winning on the anniversary.
