There's a certain buzz that comes with welcoming a Kentucky Derby winner to a stallion roster. Bret Jones knows the feeling from when Mage retired to Airdrie Stud in 2024. This year, they're repeating the milestone with Mystik Dan. Also joining Airdrie Stud's roster in 2026 is 'TDN Rising Star'Jonathan's Way, the first son of Vekoma to go to stud.
00:00There's a certain buzz that comes with adding a Kentucky Derby winner to a farm's roster.
00:07This fall, Airdrie Stud welcomed breeders to check out their latest Derby winner, Mystic Dan.
00:12In 2026, Airdrie will also add Jonathan's Way to their roster, the first son of Vekoma to go to Stud.
00:18He first came on our radar the same day that he came on everybody's radar, and that was a Kentucky Derby afternoon.
00:34Sierra Leone, Forever Young and Mystic Dan, a wild finish, here's the wire, photo finish!
00:40And I think when you look back historically at the field that was in the starting gate that day, between Dan, Sierra Leone,
00:48Forever Young, Door Knock, Fierceness, just an absolutely incredible Kentucky Derby.
00:54He came back, had a really, really good season, won two great stakes races, won the Lucas Classic in his last start,
01:02extremely impressively, very game, came between horses.
01:05One of the races that we always try to call everyone's attention to was actually his two-year-old when he first broke his maiden.
01:13He did it going five and a half furlongs early in his two-year-old year, ran away and won by seven lengths or so, ran a 96 buyer speed figure.
01:22But I don't know that he ever ran a more impressive race than when he won the Southwest by eight lengths.
01:27Super, super impressive. He goes to Pimlico in the Preakness two weeks after that really gutting Derby run,
01:34and runs a great second in American Classic. So this horse took his track with him.
01:39He's such a good-minded horse.
01:41Your TDN viewers just saw the first time he's ever shown outside at Airdrie Stud, and he did it in the midst of a pretty windy afternoon.
01:50And he handles it with the same class that he handles everything.
01:53We've been totally busy since we announced that we were showing him, and people come away super impressed with not only how well he handles everything,
02:01but what a beautifully balanced colt he is. Just made like a sire. He's that medium-sized, well-balanced, plenty of strength,
02:11just a very nice individual, and I think breeders are coming away with that takeaway.
02:16Jonathan's Way is a horse that kind of was on everybody's radar very, very early.
02:25That first race at Saratoga, his two-year-old debut, I don't know how a horse could be more impressive first out than he was.
02:34He broke a little slowly, came around horses, exploded in the stretch. TDN Rising Star, everybody's talking about the horse.
02:43And then backs it up in the grade three Iroquois. Churchill, again, wins it as easy as you could, this time does it on the lead.
02:52You know, he had the makings of a really top three-year-old, and he was in training, getting ready for his prep in New Orleans,
02:59and unfortunately had got very, very sick. And so he was robbed of a real opportunity to be a major talking horse on the three-year-old scene.
03:10But we had seen enough talent-wise, and I know Richard Rigney and Phil Bauer believe he was a very, very special horse.
03:19He was Vekoma's most expensive first crop weanling. So when you have that type physical, when you have the first horse to market by a really exciting stallion like Vekoma,
03:29those are major feathers in his cap, and it will guarantee interest and really guarantee opportunity.
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