Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, beating out the pack in a photo finish for the latest rendition of the most thrilling two minutes in sports.
The final margins of the race were nose-to-nose, with three horses galloping in for one of the closest finishes in Triple Crown history. Coming in second-place behind Mystik Dan was one of the race's favorites, Sierra Leone, with Forever Young coming in a close third-place finish.
Stewards took several minutes to look over the close finish before officially declaring Mystik Dan the winner.
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“The longest few minutes of my life,” Mystik Dan's jockey, Brian Hernandez Jr., said of the wait to finally see his horse's name officially atop the leaderboard.
Here is the entire final leaderboard:
1. Mystik Dan
2. Sierra Leone
3. Forever Young
4. Catching Freedom
5. T O Password
6. Resilience
7. Stronghold
8. Honor Marie
9. Endlessly
10. Dornoch
11. Track Phantom
12. West Saratoga
13. Domestic Product
14. Epic Ride
15. Fierceness
16. Society Man
17. Just Steel
18. Grand Mo The First
19. Catalytic
20. Just a Touch
For Hernandez, it was his first Kentucky Derby win and his first win in the Triple Crown series of horse races. It was also his second win of the weekend, as Hernandez won the Kentucky Oaks horse race at Churchill Downs on Saturday while riding the horse Thorpedo Anna.
Mystik Dan's trainer, Ken McPeek, had nothing but praise for Hernandez after the race.
"Brian just did an amazing job," McPeek said. "Brian's amazing. Probably one of the most underrated riders in racing, but, not anymore, right?"
Mystik Dan's team will take home the top prize from a purse worth $2 million more than last year. Totaling $5 million, first-place Mystik Dan's team has earned $3.1 million, while second-place Sierra Leone will take home $1 million and third-place gets $500,000. Fourth-place will take home $250,000 and fifth-place earned $150,000.
The trainer and jockey typically earn 10% of the winnings each.
A total of 20 horses galloped down the iconic Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday. Heading into the race, the horses with the best morning-line odds were Fierceness, who finished at a disappointing 15th-place, at 3-1, and then second-place Sierra Leone, at 9-2. Other horses with better odds included third-place Forever Young at 6-1 and fourth-place Catching Freedom at 8-1.
Mystik Dan came into the race with 18-1 odds, making his victory an upset. However, the 18-1 odds are no match for the Derby's largest upset in its history, when Donerail won the 39th Kentucky Derby in 1913 with 91-1 odds.
The second-largest upset in the Derby's history was in 2022, when Rich Strike won the race with 80-1 odds. And in 2019, the horse Country House won with 65-1 odds.
The Triple Crown calendar now moves on to the Preakness Stakes, set for Saturday, May 18, and then the Belmont Stakes on June 8.
Like the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes will air live on NBC and Peacock.
