In a stunning photo finish, Mystik Dan wins the Kentucky Derby

In a stunning photo finish, Mystik Dan wins the Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE — As a riveting gathering of three colts saw their fates converge at the wire of the Kentucky Derby, of all places, and as human emotions prepared to sway based on horse noses, the trio bunched together as a diverse batch for the race’s 150th occasion.

On the outside charged Sierra Leone, the track intellectuals’ pick and second choice at 9-2 whose regal beauty fetched $2.3 million at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga select yearling sale in 2022. In the middle barged Forever Young, the 7-1 shot who fetched 107.8 million yen in Japan (about $780,000) and who tried to quell the long-standing Derby doldrums of Japanese entries and UAE Derby winners, none of whom had hit the board. And nearest the rail — key words there — fought 18-1 shot Mystik Dan, a homebred from a beloved mare named Ma’am, a third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby, a leader for much of the stretch and then, upon review, the Kentucky Derby champion Saturday by a nose over Sierra Leone, then another nose over Forever Young.

“Three jumps before the wire, I didn’t see them at all,” Brian Hernandez Jr., Mystik Dan’s expert jockey, said of Sierra Leone and Forever Young. “And then right at the wire, they surged, and I was like, ‘Oh, God, did we just win the Kentucky Derby?’ ” He, like Kentuckian trainer Kenny McPeek, Arkansan owners Lance and Sharilyn Gasaway and the 156,710 in attendance, had to wait to make sure.

A long, tiring slog had ended in a tepid 2 minutes 3.34 seconds yet hadn’t ended just yet — video study would occur for the first time since 1996, when Grindstone caught Cavonnier by the tiniest and most agonizing of margins. It had ended after Hernandez’s ground-saving trek near the rail. It had ended with 3-1 favorite Fierceness, trainer Todd Pletcher’s 65th Derby entry across 24 years, fading to a stunning 15th after he appeared to have ample space to show himself while bobbing along the backstretch near the lead. Yet the ending caused only more waiting, and so, playing off the old slogan of “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” Hernandez dubbed it “the longest two minutes in sports.”

Mystik Dan, ridden by jockey Brian J. Hernandez Jr., crosses the finish line to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby.

Then they all resumed breathing and commenced pinching themselves. Chad Brown, the esteemed Sierra Leone trainer whom the Derby has tantalized, said, “You get beat by a nose in the Kentucky Derby — it’s a tough one.” McPeek, 61, exulted in not only his first Derby win in 10 tries and not only a career Triple Crown, counting the 2002 Belmont Stakes with long-shot Sarava and the 2020 Preakness Stakes with Swiss Skydiver, but also a deeply rare double deeply meaningful at Churchill Downs. He became the first trainer since the legendary Ben Jones in 1952 to win the big stuff both Friday and Saturday, with the celebrated Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies (Thorpedo Anna) and the even more celebrated Kentucky Derby for 3-year-old everybodies.

“For three weeks, I’ve felt like we were going to win both races,” McPeek said. “I can’t tell you why. Both horses have been so easy to deal with.” He cited “no drama” around the barn and said he favors “no drama” around the barn. Then, with all that winning complete, he pinpointed a foremost reason for the biggest: Hernandez. “He’s the difference between winning or losing.”

The difference hails from Louisiana, as did three-time Derby winner Calvin Borel. And when Hernandez referred to Borel on Saturday evening, he pronounced it “Bo-rail,” the way people did after seeing Borel use up less equine energy hugging the fence with Street Sense in 2007, Mine That Bird in 2009 and Super Saver in 2010. “The last 20 years I’ve ridden here in Kentucky,” Hernandez said — and that, too, seemed evident in his prudent path.

He and Mystik Dan needed to wriggle out of a thicket around the first turn, he said, and when Mystik Dan did so with aplomb, that provided confidence. Around the second turn, he said he noticed the field “piling up, piling up, piling up” outside him. He stayed inside, later cracking, “We might have taken out a little inside fence, but that’s okay.”

When Hernandez asked Mystik Dan to move, “he jumped right away,” Hernandez said, bolting through to attain a lead through the stretch and become the one they would have to chase. The ride had been brilliant, all agreed.

“This is typical Brian,” said McPeek, who has deployed Hernandez four other times in the Derby. “He knows what to do out there.” And so: “Between the post position draw [No. 3] and the job that Brian did, it gave us a huge opportunity because we saved ground, saved ground, saved ground. When you look at the photo finish, we needed all of [that ground].”

“He was just so nice and comfortable the entire way,” Hernandez said of the horse. “I was really proud of him that he was able to cruise so nicely.”

And so: “I was just smiling the whole time.”

Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. celebrates after Mystik Dan’s win.

That, too, made for a story because Mystik Dan had come from sire Goldencents, of whom McPeek said, “Goldencents is not a big-numbers stallion.” He had come from Ma’am, whom McPeek had trained and then recommended as a dam and whom he called “a lovely little filly” at first, “a hard trier” always and, ultimately, “classy.”

“We didn’t do it with Calumet Farms horses,” said McPeek, based near Lexington about an hour away. “We’ve done it with what I call working-class horses.” He said, “This isn’t a huge, zillion-dollar operation.” He’s a familiar name by now, but he’s also a Kentuckian who went to the University of Kentucky, found “the basement of the agriculture library” and “read every thoroughbred and blood-horse record ever printed when I was in college.”

While co-owner Lance Gasaway told of “just pinching myself wondering if it’s really, you know, true,” he referenced a “$10,000 stud fee.” Said Sharilyn Gasaway, his wife, “We feel like we’re just ordinary people.” She said she had been “grazing” Mystik Dan during the week and marveling at his unpretentiousness. “Kenny calls him an old soul because he’s so chill,” she said. “I think he gets a lot of that from his mama.” They own Mystik Dan with 4G Racing LLC (a Gasaway cousin), Valley View Farm LLC and Daniel Hamby III.

When Lance Gasaway and his brother, Greg, were boys, their father, Clint, had driven them the two hours to Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., from their home in Gould, Ark. By the time Lance had grown up and had played wide receiver at Arkansas Monticello and had met Sharilyn, he had been late for a crucial date — the proposal date, as it turned out — because, she said, “He was at the races.” Now they farm in Star City, Ark., near Gould, from which Lance Gasaway made a poignant stop on his way to Kentucky.

He stopped at the grave of his father, who died May 4, 2023, at 85. He planted a Kentucky Derby flag there.

“To me, you know, this is for him,” Lance Gasaway said.

“It’s been a wild ride, for sure,” Sharilyn Gasaway said, “but this is the most amazing thing ever, and we’re beside ourselves.”

“Goose bumps,” McPeek said when told he’s surely headed for the Hall of Fame.

They all headed for what seemed a jovial time at McPeek’s house, even as Hernandez had not worked out just how he would celebrate there. “I have no idea yet,” he said. “I’ve never won the Derby before.”

Mystik Dan trainer Kenny McPeek raises the trophy with his family.