By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
This time, the Shreveport connection was front and center in the winner’s circle at the Kentucky Derby.
Shreveport native and Captain Shreve High School graduate Sharilyn Gasaway, with her husband Brent and his cousin Lance, are among the owners of Mystik Dan, the three-year-old thoroughbred who won the 150th Run for the Roses Saturday at Churchill Downs in a spectacular photo finish.
Brent and Sharilyn got engaged in her hometown 35 years ago after the Arkansas native was late for a date after he had a big day watching racing at Louisiana Downs. She earned a business degree from Louisiana Tech in 1989 and became successful in regional corporations, leading to the couple deciding 15 years ago to get into the horse racing business as detailed in a September 2022 Shreveport-Bossier Journal profile written by Tony Taglavore.
The couple, along with Lance Gasaway and Daniel Hamby – all now residents of Arkansas – own 4 G Racing LLC, which bred and owns the Derby champion. All three of Mystik Dan’s previous races this year had been at Oaklawn Park. Saturday, with their first-ever Derby qualifier, they won the biggest prize in racing.
“It is surreal for sure,” she said. “We feel like we’re just ordinary people and we’ve got an amazing horse.”
A year ago, the local Omerta Thoroughbreds group, headed by Patrick Fertitta and including his mother (Agatha), aunt (Allie), uncle (Joe) and a friend, were happy investors who had an undisclosed minority ownership share of 2023 Derby winner Mage. They watched the race from Shreveport’s Petroleum Club.
Saturday, the Gasaways were front and center in Louisville, beaming after Mystik Dan won the tightest three-horse finish at the Derby since 1947.
Winning over 19 other horses in the 1 ¼-mile race in 2:03.24 by a nose over Sierra Leone, the 18-1 shot held off stretch runs by the second-place finisher and Forever Young, third by a nose. Mystik Dan’s victory paid the owners $3.1 million, minus shares (typically 10 percent each) to the jockey and trainer. The biggest Churchill Downs crowd in six years (156,710) looked on and a TV audience of 16.7 million, the largest since 1989, watched the race.
The total commingled wagering on the Derby, $198.3 million, set a record and was up 10.1 percent over last year.
Mystik Dan is a Kentucky bred horse. Over the weekend, the owners didn’t commit to running him in the May 18 Preakness Stakes but said a decision would be made quickly. Sharilyn Gasaway pointed out that Mystik Dan has not had such a short turnaround so far in his racing career.
The Gasaway family roots are in Gould, Arkansas, in the southeast corner of the state. Brent Gasaway’s hometown is Little Rock.
Lafayette jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., an Acadiana High graduate, became the sixth Louisiana native to ride a Derby winner and the first since three-time winner Calvin Borel (2007, 2009, 2010), whose trademark hug-the-rail strategy was a factor Hernandez credited with strongly influencing his ride to Saturday’s triumph. Borel rode at Louisiana Downs in the 2023 thoroughbred meet.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
The SBJ 2022 profile of Sharilyn Gasaway:
Late-arriving date still paying off 33 years later
The SBJ story on the Fertitta family’s 2023 involvement with the Derby winner Mage:
Spoiler! Shreveporter late in learning his horse won the Kentucky Derby