BY MICHAEL COMPTON
Arindel homebred and prohibitive favorite Mythical made short work of a compact field of six in the $100,000 FHBPA Sophomore Fillies Sprint Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, effortlessly winning the six-furlong test as much the best for trainer Jorge Delgado. It was the second straight stakes win for an Arindel homebred after Tank won the FHBPA Turf a race earlier.
Racing well off the rail down the backstretch, Mythical tracked from third the early pace set by Flowko and Love Like Lucy. She sailed past the dueling pacesetters at the five-sixteenths pole and strolled through the stretch to win by a commanding five-and-a-half lengths geared down under jockey Edgard Zayas. She covered the distance in 1:11.13. La Chismosa rallied late to finish second and Flowko held third. Love Like Lucy and Unfaithful Rose completed the order of finish.
Mythical paid $2.20 to win.
“At the break, somebody leaned on her, so she wasn’t too sharp from the gate, but after that everything was smooth,” Delgado said. “She was the best filly in the race and she’s one of the best fillies in the country.”
Saturday’s facile victory marked the fifth stakes win for Mythical. In an exceptional 2-year-old season in 2025, Mythical defeated the boys in the Tremont Stakes at Saratoga in June, becoming the first filly since Florida-bred Rosie O’Greta in 1995 to win the race. She added Saratoga’s Adirondack Stakes (G3) in August to her list of accomplishments before returning home to Florida to annex the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Susan’s Girl and the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes My Dear Girl. All told last year, Mythical won five-of-six starts, banking $540,750.
Following a fifth-place finish in the Forward Gal Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park to kick off her 2026 campaign, Mythical regained her winning ways by taking down top prize in Gulfstream’s Any Limit Stakes in her last start on March 14. With the $60,000 winner’s share of the FHBPA Sophomore Fillies Sprint Stakes, Mythical has now amassed earnings of $684,615 and boasts seven wins from nine lifetime starts.
Mythical is likely to run next in the $175,000 Jersey Girl, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies, June 4 at Saratoga.
“We’re probably going to go to Saratoga. She’s won two stakes at Saratoga,” Delgado said. “I think she’s one of the best fillies in the country, and she’s getting better, too.”
Mythical is by St Patrick’s Day, a full brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. St. Patrick’s Day stood in Florida at Journeyman Farm before retiring to Jane Lyons’ Summer Wind Farm in Kentucky, where he was raised. Mythical is produced from the winning Brethren mare Lailoni, an earner of $75,840 during her racing career.
-Gulfstream Park Publicity contributed to this report.
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