BOZICH | Can Mystik Dan make Muth a myth in the Preakness? Kenny McPeek thinks so | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- At 4:19 a.m. on the day that trainer Kenny McPeek flew from Louisville to Baltimore to rejoin his Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan for the Preakness, McPeek started his morning with this text message to Jerry Eaves:

“Think I could come with you (to Valhalla Golf Club)?”

Eaves, one minute later: “Heck, yeah. Meet me in the parking lot (for media) before 5:30.”

McPeek, a few minutes later: “Get me in! I’m coming!”

And McPeek did come. And Eaves did get horse racing’s man of the week into Louisville’s sport of this week: the 2024 PGA Championship.

After McPeek appeared on Eaves’ radio show from 7-8 a.m., they walked the grounds at Valhalla, watching Brooks Koepka, John Daly, Tony Finau, Jon Rahm and others.

As I wrote Monday and will likely say a few more times this week, a golf major championship will make guys who command the attention in other sports shift their schedules and become a fan for a day.

IMAGES | Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas highlight Tuesday practice rounds at Valhalla

“I actually have a normal life every now and then,” McPeek said, with a smile.

“I played a lot of golf when I was young. I played to a single handicap when I was in my teens. Played really good. Knew how to play. Then I got distracted.”

By the usual college distractions. You know the list. Make sure you include horse racing on it. McPeek, of course, eventually drifted hard to the race track and stayed there, becoming one of the nation’s top trainers.

Ten days ago, on his 10th try, McPeek won his first Kentucky Derby. Jockey Brian Hernandez stuck Mystik Dan through a golf-ball sized hole on the rail at Churchill Downs and rode him urgently to the wire.

The result was the first three-horse Derby photo finish since 1947. Mystik Dan edged Sierra Leone by a nose. It was another nose back to third-place Forever Young.

After a week of consideration, McPeek and the colt’s owners decided to enter Mystik Dan in the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, set to race Saturday at Pimlico. He drew the No. 5 post position in the 9-horse field, one spot outside Muth.

The last time those colts raced, on March 30, Muth won the Arkansas Derby. Mystik Dan finished third, 6 1/4 lengths behind.

Muth, remember, did not compete in the Kentucky Derby because he is trained by Bob Baffert, who has been suspended from racing at Churchill Downs for the last three years.

Baffert has won the Preakness eight times, including last year. McPeek has scored at Pimlico once. The oddsmakers believe that Baffert is more likely to win his ninth Preakness before McPeek wins his second. Muth was installed as the 8-5 favorite in the morning line with Mystik Dan as the second choice at 5-2.

Go ahead and mention that to McPeek. He’ll shrug. Mystik Dan was 18-1 in the Derby and the trainer said his colt looks just as robust and ready to run this week as he did during the lead-in to the Derby two weeks ago.

“We drew next to Muth and I like it,” McPeek said. “That’s perfect. It’s a very equal playing field. We’re going to try to make Muth a myth.”

“My horse is clean and no worse for the wear coming out of the (Derby). We’re pretty optimistic that we’re going to win again.”

Although the record shows that McPeek bypassed the Preakness with seven of the first nine horses that he raced in the Derby, McPeek said after Mystik Dan returned to the track last week the colt showed he was primed to race again, this time at 1 3/16th miles.

“With this colt, we’ve been loving weeks between races,” McPeek said. “All that has kept him pretty fresh. It’s not like we’ve been campaigning him hard.

“So with two races and then the Kentucky Derby, they haven’t taxed him at all. He’s a very easy keeper and he’s been eating better coming out of the Derby than he was going into it. So that’s a really good sign.”

Here’s another good sign: Four days before the Preakness, Kenny McPeek spent the morning at Valhalla with Jerry Eaves watching the best golfers on the planet before McPeek and his wife, Sherri, took a late afternoon flight to Baltimore.

“He’ll win again,” McPeek said. “I’m scared of Muth. But not that much.”

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