How Mystik Dan Won the 150th Kentucky Derby: The People and Moments That Made a Champion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The thing about a life-changing event that takes two minutes: every move, every decision, even every non-decision matters. Only it’s not just the moves, the decisions and the non-decisions made in those two minutes that matter; it is a life full of split-decision choices that together create a life and, in one case on a balmy Saturday evening, write history.

Unraveling the story of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s historic run down the rail and into the record books will take much more than rewinding around the Churchill Downs track. It includes a decision not to bail on a dinner party more than three decades ago, and a search for blood stock information in the basement of a university library years before. It requires a union with a would-be retired mare and a father who convinces his son to fall in love with horse racing. It takes one jockey to study another train rider, and it takes a partnership between a collection of people who compete with the big names but deliberately never cared about being one of them.

The historic 150th running of this race saw Mystik Dan deliver a breathtaking finish, beating second place Sierra Leone and third place Forever Young in the first three-horse photo finish since 1947. The finish was so close he didn’t even win jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. was sure what had happened and asked an outrider while soothing Mystik Dan if he had won the Kentucky Derby.

It took five agonizing minutes for the answer to arrive. The 156,710 spectators in attendance went from euphoric as the three horses approached the barbed wire to an almost stunned silence as they, like the jockey, waited for the decision.

Finally, Mystik Dan’s name flashed on the big board, the crowd in the stands cheered with joy and the forerunner shared the news with Hernandez. “It lasted about two minutes, and when they finally said, ‘Yes, you just won the Kentucky Derby, I thought, ‘Oh wow, that’s a long two minutes. That was the longest two minutes in the world of sports – from the fastest two minutes to the longest by far.”

Perhaps the only one who wasn’t surprised was coach Ken McPeek. The Kentucky-based trainer practically made what Babe Ruth did and called his shot all week. As he sat at a press conference Friday to celebrate his Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna, it was suggested he might return the next day for another winning presser. “You bet on it,” he said. When the promise was fulfilled, McPeek celebrated on the court, tightly holding his daughter Annie’s hand.

Combining the winning ride with Thorpedo Anna’s, McPeek became the first trainer since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the Kentucky Oaks-Kentucky Derby double, and Hernandez the first jockey to do so since Calvin Borel in 2009.

It’s fitting that Hernandez emulated Borel. In the longer view of this race, which is more like “It’s A Wonderful Life” and considers how even the most insignificant decisions lead to an epic life, it was Borel who alerted Hernandez to the videos to study. Borel was known around the track as Calvin Bo-Rail because of his love and comfort riding along the rail, a place many jockeys prefer to avoid. When Mystik Dan took post position three, Hernandez and McPeek started talking about how they could turn what many perceived as a disadvantage into an advantage. Hernandez discovered the secret sauce in the summaries of Borel’s rides.

In the immediate here and now, in the 2:03.34 it took Mystik Dan to complete the 1 ¼ miles, the race was won because Hernanedez Jr. sent the horse on a wonderful ride. He followed Track Phantom along the rail, and when the lead horse gave him half a step of space, he squeezed Mystik Dan through the narrow space that opened like a beam of light under a door frame, holding on for the finish to win. through a nose. Favorite Fierceness finished 15th.

But this race was won long before Hernandez started the video. It was mined some 40 years ago when a young McPeek buried himself in the University of Kentucky agricultural library to delve into BloodHorse and Thoroughbred records. McPeek was brought to Keeneland by his grandfather and never saw himself doing much other than horse racing. He jokes that his studies in the basement of the agricultural library might have led to better grades than his normal courses, but that’s only because it fueled a passion.

But all that studying and poking around created a kind of horse-racing Everyman. He prefers to learn every part of horse racing and is respected both as a blood relative and as a trainer. He even created an app – Horses Now – for replays. He is a strong supporter of the industry, loved and respected among his peers for his loyalty and decency and his willingness to keep things simple. Horse racing is a big and expensive business because the animals are often owned by conglomerates rather than individuals. McPeek has deliberately tried to avoid that approach. “I think what I’m most proud of is that we didn’t work with Calumet Farm horses,” he said, referring to the large breeding conglomerate in Lexington. “We did it with working-class horses.”

McPeek trained Mystik Dan’s mare, Mrs., and when she was nearing retirement, he convinced Lance, Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway not to retire her but to breed her to Goldencents, a 2013 Derby entrant. they agreed has to do with the trust the owners placed in McPeek, but also with their own roots in horse racing and the small moments that led them to a small racehorse with the biggest victories.

Lance Gasaway, you could say, is the Mystik Dan of college football. That is to say, perhaps a little overlooked. A record holder and Hall of Famer, he played not at Arkansas but at Arkansas-Monticello, where he was an NAIA All-American for the Boll Weevils. He started horse racing at the urging of his father, Clint, the two working together at Oaklawn, their home track. Their biggest and best chance in the spotlight came with Wells Bayou, who won the Louisiana Derby and was targeted for the Kentucky Derby until COVID struck and moved the race to September.

Clint died about a year ago, and as Lance sat on stage, he became more than a little choked up as he remembered his father’s influence. “To me, this is for him,” he said. “Dad would have loved it. He loved the game.” But a few years ago, as Mrs. was about to retire, Clint decided he was getting too old to get into horse breeding. Lance chose to bring in his cousin, Brent.

Thirty-five years ago, Brent was supposed to meet his now wife Sharilyn for a date, but he was too late. And then later. Turns out he was at the track, still at the races. Sharilyn wasn’t exactly thrilled – at least until Brent popped the question that night. When Sharilyn quit her full-time job, the couple chose to pursue horse racing full-time, about the same time Clint and Lance got into the game. When Lance needed a new partner to breed and eventually own Mystik Dan, Sharilyn and Brent made perfect sense.

Lance and Sharilyn sat side by side, sandwiched between McPeek and Hernandez, both looking a bit wide-eyed and happily dazed. When asked how they would celebrate, Lance deadpanned, “I don’t know. I’ve never won the Derby.”

Neither does McPeek. But now, with his own Triple Crown — he won the 2020 Preakness with Swiss Skydiver and the 2002 Belmont with Sarqva — he at least had an inkling of it. “I go back to the barn and hug all the staff and the whole family,” he said. “And then my house is wide open if anyone wants to come over.”

Mystik Dan may have won the Derby in two minutes of maneuvering, but it took a million smaller moments to create the masterpiece.

(Photo of jockey Brian J. Hernandez Jr. at Mystik Dan: Rob Carr/Getty Images)