Brian Hernandez Jr., long an underappreciated jockey, rides an unforgettable Kentucky Derby

As a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, who has largely spent his jockey career as a regular on the Kentucky circuit, Brian Hernandez Jr. felt an obvious connection with Calvin Borel.

So when 18-1 shot Mystik Dan, the horse Hernandez was to ride in the historic 150th Kentucky Derby, drew the third post position, Hernandez immediately thought of Borel.

In an improbable late career surge, Borel — a native of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, who also rode regularly in the commonwealth — scored three Kentucky Derby victories, utilizing a rail-hugging, ground-saving style to claim the last two of those wins in the 2009 Derby aboard Mine That Bird and the 2010 Run for the Roses on Super Saver.

“With Mystik Dan being in the three hole, I watched a couple of (Borel’s) rides there between Super Saver and Mine That Bird,” Hernandez said. “I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to roll the dice.’”

Delivering a “Calvin Bo-Rail” special, Hernandez made a bold move along the rail in the final turn that, ultimately, allowed Mystik Dan to get through to the lead and save just enough ground to prevail at the wire in a scintillating three-horse charge to the finish with Sierra Leone and Forever Young.

With a Churchill Downs crowed of 156,710 roaring, the three horses crossed the finish line almost locked in stride.

Ultimately, a photo finish showed Mystik Dan a nose ahead of Sierra Leone, who was a nose ahead of third-place Forever Young, the previously unbeaten Japanese horse. The winning time was 2:03.34.

The three-way photo to determine the victor was the first in a Kentucky Derby since 1947. It was a finish worthy of the 150th renewal of North America’s marquee horse race — and the ride by Hernandez proved every bit worthy of such a historic moment.

Once Mystik Dan claimed the lead entering the stretch, Hernandez said he had his head down, riding, and did not realize until the final jumps of the race that there were closers to his horse’s outside charging hard to take the Kentucky Derby away.

Once the finish line had been crossed, Hernandez said he asked an outrider if Mystik Dan had won. The reply was probably, but it was not certain pending the photo.

The wait for Derby certainty “was the longest two minutes of my life,” Hernandez said.

The victory by trainer Kenny McPeek’s Mystik Dan made Hernandez a Kentucky Derby champion in his fifth try at the race. In four previous Derbys, Hernandez had not finished better than eighth.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hernandez said. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Eleven years ago, the 38-year-old Hernandez had another signature moment on one of horse racing’s grandest stages. On the jockey’s 27th birthday, he guided Fort Larned to victory in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

Yet, for whatever reason, that victory did not elevate Hernandez’s career to the elite level of racing.

Toiling mostly on the Kentucky racing circuit, Hernandez’s great patron became McPeek. The trainer, a Tates Creek High School and University of Kentucky graduate, has long given Hernandez chances on his best horses. In 2021, Hernandez won four stakes races at Keeneland — all on horses trained by McPeek.

“Well, the older you get, I don’t get enamored with all the, I guess you could say, big-namers,” McPeek said of more famous jockeys. “With Brian and his agent (Frank Bernis), there’s nothing complicated about either one of them. It’s all business, business, business — and there’s no drama. And I like ‘no drama.’”

On Saturday, Hernandez repaid McPeek’s faith.

The key point in the race came in the final turn. A tiring Track Phantom drifted out slightly. Hernandez asked Mystik Dan to push through a small hole along the rail.

“When I called upon him to hit that spot that I needed right before we straightened, to kind of get a little separation on the deep, deep closers, he did it,” Hernandez said of Mystik Dan. “He jumped off quickly and we were able to get that separation, and that made the difference of them not getting to him (at) the wire.”

As the winning jockey in Kentucky Derby 150, Hernandez etched his name in race lore.

He joins Oliver Lewis (first Derby in 1875), J.D. Mooney (50th Derby in 1924) and Angel Cordero Jr. (100th Run for the Roses in 1974) as the winning jockeys in numerically significant Kentucky Derbys.

It was the weekend of a lifetime for the McPeek-Hernandez duo. The jockey and trainer also combined to win Friday’s Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna.

That makes Hernandez the eighth jockey all-time to win the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks in the same year. He is the first to do so since — you guessed it — Borel (Rachel Alexandra in the Oaks, Mine That Bird in the Derby) in 2009.

All it took for Hernandez to win the Kentucky Derby and put his name on several historic lists was a daring move along the rail that would have done Borel proud.

Said McPeek: “Brian ... he’s the difference in winning and losing today, for sure.”

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