Horses charge around the track. The crowd roars. Three horses cross the finish line at almost the same time. Who won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday?
It’s Mystik Dan by a nose! He edged out Sierra Leone and Forever Young for the victory.
Track Phantom and Just Steel started off in front early in the race. Then Track Phantom drifted off the rail. That opened a hole that jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr., squeezed Mystik Dan through.
“When he shot through that spot, he was able to cut the corner and I asked him to go for it,” Mr. Hernandez says. Mr. Hernandez realized that the pair could win the race.
Sierra Leone and Forever Young took up the chase in the middle of the track. Mystik Dan fought to stay in front.
Mystik Dan got so close to the rail that Mr. Hernandez’s boot struck it. “But I think we can buy another pair of boots,” he says.
The winner of the race gets $3.1 million. The jockey and trainer typically earn 10 percent each. (That could be about $310,000 each.)
The crowd waited in the heat and humidity as officials reviewed the result.
Those were “the longest few minutes of my life,” Mr. Hernandez says. He and Mystik Dan walked in circles while waiting. He says of the win, “I don’t think it will sink in for a while.”
The Kentucky Derby is the most watched horse race in the United States. The derby takes place every year at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. This year was the sesquicentennial (150th)!
What’s next for Mystik Dan? He may run in another famous race on May 18. That’s the Preakness in Baltimore, Maryland. But his trainer and owners say he might need a longer rest. If so, they will wait until the Belmont Stakes in June.
The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. — Proverbs 21:31
