Mystic Lady at 3-2 odds was a slight favorite over Sir Brian's Sword in a field reduced to six by scratches. Did It and Run won the Jersey Derby in its final running at Garden State Park in 1998. Colts retook a temporary hold on the race with its relocation to Monmouth as Swamp won in 1999 and the Mott-trained Lendell Ray won in 2000. Ellee Diamond, the assistant to winning trainer Mark Hennig, said the plan to try Mystic Lady against colts for the first time in the filly's career was put together only a few days ago. Mystic Lady, a daughter of Thunder Gulch, had done well against her gender, winning a pair of graded stakes, but she had a tiring seventh-place effort in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on the eve of the Kentucky Derby.
Horses can only go so fast so far.
It happened to the boys in the Derby. It can be crazy in Kentucky during Derby Week. The weather looked like this race would come off the turf. It was like, here's a place we can run her, though it might be crazy. But if it comes off the grass, she's going to run against grass horses.