Mystik Dan wins historic 2024 Kentucky Derby in three-way photo finish at Churchill Downs

Mystik Dan won a three-way photo finish over Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a historic 150th edition of the Grade 1, $5 million Kentucky Derby from a full field of 20 horses on Saturday night beneath the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

Mystik Dan, saddled by Lexington-based trainer Kenny McPeek and ridden by jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., provided the first combination Oaks-Derby double since 1952 with their narrow win.

The McPeek-Hernandez duo teamed up to win the Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna on Friday evening at Churchill. The last jockey to do the Oaks-Derby double was Calvin Borel in 2009 with Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird. The last trainer to do the double was Ben Jones in 1952 with Real Delight and Hill Gail.

McPeek is only the fourth-ever trainer to do the Oaks-Derby double in the same year.

But it wasn’t immediately apparent that McPeek, Hernandez and Mystik Dan had achieved this ultra-rare Oaks-Derby double. A significant delay occurred following the Derby while the photo finish between the three horses was sorted out.

According to Churchill Downs, 2024 marked the first three-horse photo finish since Jet Pilot, Phalanx and Faultless in the 1947 Derby.

Saturday’s result was one of the closest finishes in Derby history. It was the first Derby that was decided by a nose margin since Grindstone beat Cavonnier in 1996.

Mystik Dan (who went off in the Derby at 18-1 odds) ultimately held on to win as he rode the rail to victory. Sierra Leone charged on the outside to finish in second while Forever Young, a previously undefeated colt from Japan, came through the middle in a strong third-place effort.

A nose was also the margin that decided second place.

Mystik Dan raced the Kentucky Derby in a winning time of 2:03.34.

After Friday’s Kentucky Oaks was contested over a sloppy track and rain threatened throughout Saturday, the Derby was run over a fast main track at Churchill.

It didn’t matter. McPeek and Hernandez won in both conditions at Churchill Downs this weekend.

Catching Freedom finished in fourth. T O Password (JPN) finished in fifth, meaning that both of the Japanese horses in this year’s race placed in the top five.

Eight horses with ties to Japan have now tried and failed to win the Derby, with Forever Young coming the closest.

The early pace in Saturday’s race was set by a trio of Track Phantom, post-time favorite Fierceness and Just Steel. Dornoch, who broke from post position 1 and was expected to help set the early pace, didn’t start well and never factored into the race result.

A $2 exacta in the Derby with Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone paid $258.56. A $1 trifecta with Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone and Forever Young (JPN) paid $1,113.84. A $1 superfecta, which included the fourth-place finisher, Catching Freedom, paid $8,254.07.

McPeek, 61, was previously 0-for-9 in the Derby, with his best finish being second with Tejano Run in 1995. McPeek, who was born in Arkansas but was raised in Lexington and graduated from Tates Creek High School, broke an 0-for-14 streak in the Oaks on Friday night when Thorpedo Anna won.

Hernandez had been 0-for-4 in the Derby, with his best finish being eighth with McCraken in 2017.

“Brian just did an amazing job,” McPeek said post-race on NBC, praising the jockey, Hernandez, multiple times.

Mystik Dan (who broke from post position 3) is owned by Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing (Brent Gasaway), Daniel Hamby and Valley View Farm. This was the first Kentucky Derby for all of Mystik Dan’s owners.

The Derby fractions were :22.97 for the opening quarter of a mile, :46.63 for the opening half-mile and 1:11.31 for the opening three-fourths of a mile.

Mystik Dan hugged the rail for the entirety of his Derby trip and emerged the best from a five-wide pack of horses in the turn for home.

Mystik Dan had accrued 46 Derby qualifying points, which included a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 30 at Oaklawn Park and a win in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes in early February at Oaklawn Park.

The horse is now 3-1-1 in seven career starts. He entered the Derby with career earnings of $641,360, a total that will significantly increase after Saturday’s result.

The bay-colored horse was bred in Kentucky and was sired by Goldencents. Mystik Dan’s dam was Ma’am, by Colonel John.

A homebred, Mystik Dan earned his first career win at Churchill Downs last November.

Fierceness, the morning-line favorite and the 3-1 post-time favorite, finished in 15th after being part of the early race lead. The last post-time favorite to win the Derby was Justify in 2018.

With his third-place finish, Forever Young also becomes the first horse who previously ran in the UAE Derby to hit the board in the Kentucky Derby. The previous best finish by a runner in the UAE Derby, which has existed since 2000, was a fifth-place effort in in 2011 by Master of Hounds.

UAE Derby participants are now 0-for-20 all time in the Kentucky Derby.

The second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown is the Preakness Stakes on May 18 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. On Sunday morning, McPeek was noncommittal about running Mystik Dan in that race.

“I ran him back in two weeks before and it backfired on me,” McPeek said.

After Mystik Dan broke his maiden at Churchill Downs last November, he ran again beneath the Twin Spires just two weeks later and finished an allowance optional claiming race in fifth with the worst effort of his career.

The 2024 Derby Day attendance was 156,710 spectators at Churchill Downs, an increase of more than 6,000 fans from the crowd of 150,335 people that gathered for last year’s race.

This year’s historic 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby also brought several new wagering records at Churchill Downs. The all-sources betting on Saturday’s card at Churchill Downs was a record $320.5 million, which included a record $210.7 million bet on the Derby alone.

In total, Kentucky Derby week betting clocked in at a record $446.6 million.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. dominates Derby undercard races

As always, several high-quality stakes races took place on the Derby undercard Saturday at Churchill Downs.

The early undercard races were dominated by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who won each of the Grade 2, $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes, Grade 1, $1 million Derby City Distaff Stakes and Grade 2, $665,000 Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes.

Ortiz won each of those races for a different trainer: Ortiz was aboard Cogburn for Steve Asmussen in a 2 1/4-length victory in the Turf Sprint, Vahva for Cherie DeVaux in a 2-length victory in the Derby City Distaff and Chili Flag (FR) for Chad Brown in a win that came by a neck in the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile.

The 88-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas teamed up with jockey Jaime Torres to win the Grade 2, $600,000 Pat Day Mile Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths with Seize the Grey, and trainer H. Graham Motion paired with jockey Umberto Rispoli to win the Grade 2, $600,000 American Turf Stakes with 47-1 long shot Trikari.

Asmussen also won the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs by 2 1/2 lengths with Gun Pilot, who was ridden by Cristian Torres.

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