Page 11 - 2020 Stallion Register

Goncharoff credited June Zent, wife of veterinarian Dr. Walter Zent, with the idea but really wasn’t serious. Or was it?
Reluctantly, Goncharoff called his boss.
“We might want to consider running him over jumps,” he said.
Hubbard, the owner of Hollywood Park racetrack and as far removed from jump racing as anyone in racing, issued a clear response.
“Tommy,” he said. “I don’t know anything about racing over jumps, but go ahead. I guess you’ve got to call Jonathan Sheppard. He’s the only guy I’ve ever heard of.”
Goncharoff dug up a number for Sheppard, and by October, two months after running on the turf at Arlington Park, Mistico won his hurdle debut at Tryon, N.C.
In 1992, he made 10 starts – winning three and placing second five times while leading all hurdle horses with $155,187 earned. Sanna Neilson rode him twice, finishing second in the 3-mile Iroquois in May and winning the Colonial Cup in November. The Iroquois was restricted
to amateur jockeys then and Blythe Miller was committed to Victorian Hill. Sheppard asked Neilson, whose mounts to that point had pretty much been slower, steadier timber horses, if she’d be interested. She jumped at the chance.
“I had never been on that caliber of a horse,” she said Thursday. “I can remember going up the hill the second time and thinking ‘we must have another time to go around.’ He was going so easily. I sat and waited and just waited a little too long and I got beat (second to Victorian Hill by 2 lengths).”
Neilson felt terrible, and called Sheppard – on a pay phone – to apologize. Sheppard said he might give her another chance someday. Mistico
went on to win twice in September and finished second to stablemate Highland Bud in the Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase for Craig Thornton. By November’s Colonial Cup, Sheppard entered four horses. Thornton got on Ninepins, Miller took Double Bill, Jonathan Smart rode Yaw. Neilson, who credited Sheppard assistant Betsy Wells with a nudge, got a do-over aboard Mistico.
“What’s your plan Sanna?” Sheppard asked in the paddock.
“I’m going to sit right behind Victorian Hill and then I’m going to kick on.”
Mistico was more than up to the task, stalking Circuit Bar and Victorian Hill early, and blazing to a 6-length win.
To start 1993, Mistico won the Carolina Cup with Thornton in late March but reunited with Neilson for another go at the Iroquois. The race had relaxed its amateurs-only status, but Sheppard stuck with Neilson. Mistico won by again, ousting Warm Spell by 2 lengths.
“I remember thinking I had never gone
– successfully – that fast into a fence, and
that was a 3-mile race,” Neilson said of the experience. “He was really an impressive-feeling animal. He was a machine.”
That was the last time she rode Mistico, who won the Iroquois and the New York Turf Writers Cup (with Thornton) in 1994, but
she remembers him. She went on to train steeplechase champions McDynamo and Pompeyo and a slew of other quality horses, all measured – at least a little – to this one.
“I had never sat on anything like that before, and maybe one or two since but not many,” she said. “Jonathan had so many nice horses and I worked for him off and on, but to actually sit on
one in a race and know that’s what a really good one feels like helped me. It was a little bit of experience.
“He was a spring waiting to uncoil. Pompeyo (champion in 2001) reminded me of him. McDynamo (a three-time champion) was different. He was very relaxed.”
Mistico raced in 1995 and 1996, but never won again despite seconds and thirds in the Carolina Cup, A.P. Smithwick, Turf Writers (beaten a neck by Lonesome Glory), Colonial Cup, Atlanta Cup and another Iroquois. His last start came in the 1996 Smithwick at Saratoga and he was retired to Crystal Springs with a suspensory injury. He earned $517,347 over fences (third on the all-time list when he was retired and still 14th).
Goncharoff still marvels over the heady achievements, and the unlikeliness of it all.
“These horses take you to the most amazing places,” he said. “They’re so willing and just go along with what we come up with for them. It was a totally different world for us, but we loved it. It was so fun, just so fun.”
At first Goncharoff planned a second career. His daughters were riding, participating in pony club and other activities. A nice, quiet Thoroughbred might be perfect. Mistico had none of it.
“He was sound, the vet went over him and everything,” said Goncharoff. “But every time we put tack on him and had somebody ride him, he’d start limping. Take the tack off, sound as could be and off he would go.”
He became the Kentucky farm’s babysitter, earning the nickname “The Warden” in a field with young colts. Then it was a private paddock, and now it’s the good life in New Mexico.
“He’s great,” said Goncharoff. “Nothing bothers him – unless you want to put him in the barn.”
Above: Mystico & Sanna Neilson pull away from victorian Hill in the 1993 Colonial Cup photo © Deidre Davie
Right: Mystico at age 33, taken this year by
Notes:
Owner R.D. Hubbard only saw Mistico run twice – a fall at the last
fence of the 1993 Turf Writers at
Saratoga and a fifth in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup at Far Hills. The owner nearly pulled off a Hollywood Park steeplechase at the end of the 1994 season, only to be voted down by the California HBPA in September. Mistico would have been there for sure... Mistico competed in a deep stakes division populated by worthy horses. Lonesome Glory
was an all-timer. Warm Spell was brilliant, but sadly
didn’t last. Mistico could have easily been a three-time champion in other years. Victorian Hill won 15 races and led the earnings list for years. Ninepins raced until age 13. Rowdy Irishman won two Iroquois and was as tough as they get. Each has a spot in the top 20 earners. They won 70 American jump races, and earned a combined $3.25 million. “That group of horses he was in against...” said Goncharoff. “We had no idea how good they were until afterward. It was an honor to be in there with them.”
Tom Goncharo˜
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