Lance Gasaway is an Arkansas farmer, former college football player, and Thoroughbred owner-breeder whose best-known racing achievement came with Mystik Dan. Gasaway helped breed the colt and later raced him in partnership with 4 G Racing, Daniel Hamby III, and Valley View Farm.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby on May 4, 2024, prevailing in a close three-horse finish at Churchill Downs. The victory marked the high point of a racing involvement that began with unsuccessful regional purchases and gradually evolved into a more deliberate approach centered on yearlings, professional bloodstock advice, and breeding.
Football and Farming Before Horse Racing
Before becoming involved in Thoroughbred ownership, Gasaway attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He joined its football program as a walk-on and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science in business administration.
Gasaway developed into one of the most productive receivers in UAM history. His recorded college totals were 113 receptions, 1,605 receiving yards, and 12 touchdowns. He received honorable mention NAIA Division I All-American recognition in 1985 and earned first-team All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference honors in both 1984 and 1985.
One of his most notable performances came in a 36–31 victory over Henderson State. UAM’s Hall of Fame profile credits him with 16 receptions for 196 yards, figures that set school and conference records at the time. Looking back on his football years, Gasaway focused on the understanding he shared with quarterback Joe Don Samples and the bonds that remained after their playing days.
UAM inducted him into its Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. Outside athletics, he built his professional work around agriculture. In May 2025, the university reported that he ran G & L Gasaway Farms in Gould with family members and managed an agricultural flying service with six locations across southeast Arkansas.
How His Interest in Racing Began
Gasaway traced his interest in horse racing to his father, Clint, who took Lance and his brother Greg from Gould to the races at Oaklawn. Those trips connected the sport with family long before Gasaway became an owner.
His first ownership venture began around 2012. Gasaway recalled that he, Greg, and their friend Daniel Hamby agreed to buy three Arkansas-bred horses after a conversation at Oaklawn. The purchase did not produce an immediate breakthrough. Two of the horses never raced, while the third made only one start. Gasaway could no longer remember their names when he discussed the experience in 2024.
The setbacks did not end his interest. Character Zero became the first horse he remembered owning outright. Gasaway claimed him from a race at Oaklawn on March 8, 2015, and the horse won in his next appearance. That result encouraged him to continue.
A much larger success followed with Wells Bayou. Gasaway owned the horse in partnership with his father, Madaket Stables, and Wonder Stables. Wells Bayou won the 2020 Louisiana Derby, giving Gasaway his first major stakes victory, but finished fifth in the Arkansas Derby and did not reach the Kentucky Derby. He retired with three wins from 11 starts and earnings of $935,303.
That missed Derby opportunity affected Gasaway’s expectations four years later. As Mystik Dan approached the 2024 race, Gasaway said his first concern was simply making it into the starting field.
Changing His Approach to Buying and Breeding
Gasaway’s methods changed as he gained experience. He moved away from concentrating on Arkansas-bred horses and claiming-race purchases and began working with bloodstock agent Liz Crow. Trainer Kenny McPeek also encouraged him to shift his attention from two-year-olds to yearlings.
The development of Mystik Dan grew from that more structured approach. McPeek helped the ownership group acquire Ma’am, a daughter of Colonel John, and trained her for most of her racing career. She won four times from 23 starts before becoming a broodmare.
When the group was considering the end of Ma’am’s racing career, McPeek recommended breeding her and suggested Goldencents as the stallion. That mating produced Mystik Dan. Instead of buying a finished racehorse with an established record, the partners had participated in creating and developing the colt who would eventually take them to Churchill Downs.
Gasaway described the team as a comparatively low-budget operation before the Derby. For him, reaching the field with a horse bred by the group was already a significant accomplishment, regardless of the result.
The Breeding of Mystik Dan
Official records identify Lance Gasaway, Daniel Hamby III, and 4 G Racing as Mystik Dan’s breeders. That list differs slightly from the partnership that raced him in the Kentucky Derby.
By Derby day, the ownership consisted of Gasaway, Daniel Hamby III, 4 G Racing, and Valley View Farm. BloodHorse identified 4 G Racing with Gasaway’s cousin Brent Gasaway and Brent’s wife, Sharilyn. Lance was listed separately within the partnership.
Valley View Farm joined the ownership but was not among the recorded breeders. Keeping those roles separate gives a clearer account of Gasaway’s contribution: he was both a co-breeder and a co-owner of Mystik Dan, while the later ownership group included an additional partner.
McPeek trained the colt, and Brian Hernandez Jr. became his regular rider. Mystik Dan reached the Derby after winning the Southwest Stakes and finishing third in the Arkansas Derby, securing his place in the field Gasaway had once regarded as the main objective.
Winning the 150th Kentucky Derby
Mystik Dan entered the Kentucky Derby from post three on May 4, 2024. Hernandez kept him near the inside, and an opening along the rail allowed the colt to move into the lead entering the stretch.
Sierra Leone and Forever Young closed from the outside, producing a three-horse photo finish. Mystik Dan held on by a nose and completed the 1¼ miles in 2:03.34. Churchill Downs described it as the closest three-horse Derby finish since 1947.
The victory produced a $3.1 million winner’s share for the ownership partnership. It was not an individual payment to Gasaway, but it accounted for the largest share of Mystik Dan’s earnings at that stage of his career.
The date carried personal meaning for Gasaway. His father had died at age 85 on May 4, 2023, exactly one year before the Derby. Before traveling to Louisville, Gasaway visited his father’s grave and placed a Kentucky Derby flag there. Following the race, he dedicated the victory to the man who had introduced him to Oaklawn and said his father would have loved the occasion.
For Gasaway, the result completed a long progression from those early family trips to the track, through failed purchases and Wells Bayou’s missed Derby opportunity, to winning the race with a homebred colt.
Mystik Dan’s Career After the Derby
Mystik Dan continued racing after his three-year-old campaign. On May 31, 2025, he returned to the Churchill Downs winner’s circle in the Grade 3 Blame Stakes. His time of 1:48.45 established a stakes record and gave him his first victory since the Derby.
Another graded success followed on September 27, when he won the Grade 2 Lukas Classic at the same track. His racing career ended later that year, with trainer Kenny McPeek announcing his retirement on November 7, 2025.
Equibase records Mystik Dan’s final career figures as 16 starts, 5 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third, and earnings of $4,819,160. Earlier reports contain lower earnings totals because they were published before his final races.
Following retirement, Mystik Dan moved to Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky. He joined the farm’s stallion roster for the 2026 breeding season at an advertised fee of $15,000.
Blackout Time and Another Derby-Trail Attempt
Gasaway’s racing activity continued with Blackout Time, a colt campaigned in partnership with BR Thoroughbreds and Magdalena Racing. His name was associated with Gasaway’s football years. Gasaway explained that his team sometimes turned off the lights before entering the field, creating what they called “blackout time.” The second part also matched the name of the colt’s sire, Not This Time.
Blackout Time showed early promise but was scratched from the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile because of a regulatory veterinary soundness concern. Mystik Dan was also scratched from his scheduled Breeders’ Cup race the following day. Gasaway later described the consecutive decisions as painful and the following months as a trying period, although no specific injury diagnosis was publicly confirmed.
The colt returned in 2026 and finished fourth in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on March 1. He then placed fifth in the Arkansas Derby on March 28. Those results did not reproduce Mystik Dan’s route to Churchill Downs, but they kept Gasaway involved in prominent races after the retirement of his Derby winner.
Conclusion
Lance Gasaway reached the Kentucky Derby through a combination of long-term interest, changing methods, and a breeding partnership centered on Ma’am and Goldencents. His background in farming and football preceded an uneven start in ownership, an important success with Wells Bayou, and a more focused strategy developed with Liz Crow and Kenny McPeek.
Mystik Dan ultimately gave Gasaway and his partners a victory in the 150th Kentucky Derby before ending his career with more than $4.8 million in earnings. With the colt now at Airdrie Stud, Gasaway has remained active in racing through partnerships such as Blackout Time.