BY TAMMY A. GANTT
“Fast. Determined. Tough.”
That’s the words Nastia Zemtsova, assistant trainer for Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. uses to describe millionaire Mystic Lake and that’s what she’ll need to win the $125,000 Minaret six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares four years and up Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
The five-year-old multiple Grade 2-winning Florida-bred champion faces a field of five including three other Florida-breds Admiral Hopper, Long Gone Sally, and Ms. Bucchero.
She comes into the race after finishing third in a loss to Ms. Bucchero in the $125,000 Sugar Swirl at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 20. Trained and owned by Diane D. Morici, Ms. Bucchero is set at odds of 2 to 1 with Mystic Lake’s morning line at 1 to 1.
Prior to that loss, Mystic Lake held a four-race streak winning the Liberty Bell, Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon, Dashing Beauty, and Memorial Day Sprint, all black type races. With earnings of more than $1,460,017 in 21 starts with 11 wins, three seconds, and two thirds, she is the richest and most accomplished runner in the field.
She is owned by Miller Racing LLC, BAG Racing Stables LLC, and Stefania Farms LLC and was bred by Peggy Costanzo who raised her with her husband Tony on their Ocala farm.
By Mo Town out of Salty Soul by Itsmyluckyday, she is based at Palm Meadows Training Center where she consistently posted speedy works in front of admirers railside.
Florida-bred Ms. Bucchero was bred in Florida by Pamela Edel of Ocala and is by Bucchero out of Give Glory to God by Mutakddim. The six-year-old mare has been a consistent runner finishing in the money 14 of 19 starts with 10 wins and four seconds and earnings of $459,025. The mare may need the same trip in the Minaret as last time out by pressing Mystic Lake early and taking the inside rail.
Florida-bred Long Gone Sally steps into the race after winning four straight in the claiming ranks. She’s already posted her first win in 2026 at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 18 winning by one and three-quarters lengths in a field of eight at seven furlongs.
By Florida sire Adios Charlie, out of All Summed Up by In Summation, she is trained by Lynn Rarick and owned by Tom Abrahamson who purchased her from Joel Sainer. Sainer purchased her as a yearling out of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales October sale for $13,000 from her breeder Norman and Elizabeth Wilson’s Ocala-based Oakleaf Farm.
The second leading general sire in 2024, Adios Charlie currently stands at Ocala Stud and has posted more than $2.5 million in progeny earnings and 53 winners.
One of the last by the late Florida stallion Field Commission, eight-year-old mare Admiral Hopper was bred by father-daughter duo Edward Seltzer and Krista Seltzer, DVM, who operate Solera Farm in Williston. Out of Flower Class by Stormy Atlantic, the multiple stakes placed mare is consistent – hitting the board every year she has raced, except in 2023 where she ran only once.
She is looking to improve upon the fourth-place finish where she was checked in the turn on Jan. 7 at Tampa Bay Downs. She last hit the winner circle in 2024 on Oct. 18 at Gulfstream Park where she won a starter optional claimer. When she stepped up in company later that year to black type stakes, she posted two thirds out of four starts.
She is owned by Kevin Pitt’s Stonebase LLC, in which Krista Seltzer is partnered along with Curtis L. Garrison, Jr. and as an entity they have four other horses. Previously the mare was sold as a yearling in Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale in 2024 with Seltzer, DVM as agent to Taylor Made Sales Agency for $15,000.
Return to the February 6 issue of Wire to Wire
