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Our black-type placed broodmare Faze the Nation — on the heels of her locally-conceived first foal having achieved black-type this year as well — will ship to Kentucky this spring for a date with the gorgeously-bred G1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide during his first season at stud at Jonabell Farm.
A TDN Rising Star when breaking his maiden second-time out at the Fair Grounds for trainer Mike Stidham and Godolphin early in his 3YO campaign, Mystic Guide would go on to be 3rd in the G3 Peter Pan that summer (the season Covid greatly affected the racing calendar) before capturing the G2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga by 3 lengths, and then finishing 2nd in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup (ahead of Tacitus). He returned as a 4YO to score by 6 lengths in the G3 Razorback at Oaklawn (108 Beyer) and then capture the G1 Dubai World Cup by a widening 3-3/4 lengths in a time faster than Arrogate and California Chrome, among others. He closed his career with a neck loss in the G2 Suburban, and enters stud in 2023 at his birthplace.
In addition to that impressive race record, Mystic Guide is a strapping, gorgeous physical specimen, to match his top class pedigree: he’s by the Eclipse HOTY and leading sire Ghostzapper, out of a 5x G1 winning daughter of AP Indy in Music Note (who is also the dam of G3 winner Gershwin), herself a half to multiple G1 winner Musical Chimes, and their granddam is Eclipse Champion It’s In the Air. So this is a high quality, classic-oriented family, and Mystic Guide lived up to it in both looks and achievements.
Faze the Nation, meanwhile, was a 2YO winner who improved to win 5 more races as a 3YO and be stakes-placed that season at Laurel, having done all her best work sprinting. Similarly, her first foal was the 2022 debut-winning 2YO filly Flamingo Faze, who picked up her own black-type in just her second start. Both Faze the Nation and Flamingo Faze are built in the more compact mode of the sprinters that they were/are, and we think that will make the larger, scopier Mystic Guide a great choice to hopefully stretch out this next foal, both in build and distance capabilities on the racetrack (and conversely, hopefully it will add a little speed and precocity to what Mystic Guide’s genes bring to the table).
This is a wonderful matchup on pedigree, as well — TrueNicks rates the Ghostzapper/Distorted Humor cross an “A++” with 6 stakes winners from 24 runners bred on the pattern, including the G1 winners Guarana and Molly Morgan. Additionally, Mystic Guide’s G3-winning half-brother Gershwin is by Distorted Humor, whereas Faze the Nation’s female family has also produced the G2-winning 2YO McCraken by Ghostzapper. All of which, we think, points to these lines blending well together.
Also worth noting is that Mystic Guide’s broodmare sire is A.P. Indy, and he takes after that line more obviously than he does the Ghostzapper sire-line, while Faze the Nation herself is already inbred 3×3 to A.P. Indy (though she really does not favor him in looks or proclivities), meaning their foal will have A.P. Indy 3x4x4.
So this is a mating which has a lot to recommend it, and we can’t wait to see what it produces in 2024!