Sierra Leone, with jockey Tyler Gaffalione, (2 ), Forever Young, with jockey Ryusei Sakai, and Mystik Dan, with jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., cross the goal at Churchill Downs throughout the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race Saturday, in Louisville, Ky. Kiichiro Sato/AP conceal caption
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Kiichiro Sato/AP
Sierra Leone, with jockey Tyler Gaffalione, (2 ), Forever Young, with jockey Ryusei Sakai, and Mystik Dan, with jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., cross the goal at Churchill Downs throughout the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race Saturday, in Louisville, Ky.
Kiichiro Sato/AP
In a close surface, Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby by a horse’s nostril over Sierra Leone.
Competitors waited with bated breath in the seconds before the main choice was made. The thoroughbred had actually gone into the race with 18-1 chances– a longshot compared to preferred Fierceness at 3-1 chances.
Mystik Dan’s fitness instructor Ken McPeek on Saturday ended up being the very first fitness instructor given that 1952 to win the Kentucky Oaks and Derby in the exact same year, according to the NBC broadcast. It was jockey Brian Hernandez’s very first Derby win. The duo won the Oaks a day previously with filly Thorpedo Anna on a muddy track.
McPeek applauded the jockey for the success.
“Brian is remarkable,” he informed NBC Sports throughout the post-race broadcast, “most likely among the most underrated riders in racing– however not any longer, right?”
For Hernandez, winning the Derby is a dream he’s had given that he was 6 years of ages.
“This is a life time accomplishment,” he stated. “To be able to live that dream that– when I was a 6-year-old kid riding my bike around my grandparents’ farm, informing them all I was going to the Kentucky Derby one day– and here we are.”
Behind Sierra Leone, Forever Young put 3rd.
The weather condition acted on Saturday at the 150th running of the race. The longest-running sporting occasion in the U.S. was held following modifications intending to tidy up the sport.
Several scandals have actually pestered the horse racing market recently, consisting of an abrupt uptick in horse deaths and doping accusations. In 2020, more than 2 lots individuals were prosecuted in a racehorse doping plan. In 2015, Churchill Downs drew increased analysis after 12 horses passed away at the track within a month.
About a year later on, numerous examinations have actually discovered no pattern linking those deaths, reported member station Louisville Public Media.
The sport in basic threatens for horses. In 2015, 336 horses passed away from racing-related injuries, according to the Jockey Club.
In reaction to doping and abuse claims, Congress in 2021 authorized the development of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which intends to set nationwide requirements to control the sport.
The federal body put brand-new anti-doping guidelines into impact at Churchill Downs this year.