With Churchill Downs closed May 5, the day after the Kentucky Derby (G1), jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. had planned to be on a flight to Louisiana that morning for a rare Sunday off from riding to enjoy live music during the day at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
But the rider and other connections of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan were instead at Churchill Downs, speaking to an audience, rather than within one.
"I'm standing here with all these cameras in front of me. I'm like, 'Wow, what just happened?'" he said.
Hernandez scrapped his travel, choosing instead to celebrate dinner the evening of May 4 with his wife, Jamie, and other family and friends at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse in Louisville, Ky.
Not far from Mystik Dan's stall outside the barn of trainer Kenny McPeek Sunday morning, Hernandez, McPeek, and Lance and Sharilyn Gasaway—members of the partnership that owns Mystik Dan—looked tired but happy.
The same description applied to the horse, who, as is typical for a Kentucky Derby winner, was led out of his stall for a photo opportunity before a throng of photographers and media. He was subdued and, after a bath, returned inside the barn to walk some laps in the shedrow before being led back to his stall. He wore a blanket celebrating him as the winner of the 150th Kentucky Derby.
Mystik Dan showed signs of his hard race, in which he outlasted Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a three-horse photo finish.
"Look, most trainers don't talk about all this. But cards on the table, face up —he left three quarts (of) feed," McPeek said. "We couldn't hardly get everybody out of the barn until midnight, so he couldn't really get a great night's rest."
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McPeek was noncommittal about whether Mystik Dan, who races for Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing, Daniel Hamby III, and Valley View Farm, would pursue the May 18 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course or await the June 8 Belmont Stakes (G1), taking place this year at Saratoga Race Course. The 1 3/16-mile Preakness and Belmont Stakes, shortened to 1 1/4 miles this year due to being at Saratoga, are the remaining legs of the Triple Crown, a series last swept by Justify in 2018. Justify became the 13th winner of the Triple Crown.
In part due to the lure of the Triple Crown, and the eventual stallion value that comes to a horse that can sweep the series, Kentucky Derby winners often return in the Preakness. But some have skipped the race, most recently Rich Strike in 2022, to await the Belmont, where he ran sixth.
Last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Mage , ran third in the Preakness. His connections then bowed out of running him in the Belmont.
McPeek noted that Mystik Dan ran below form when he previously raced him on two weeks of rest in the fall of 2023, finishing fifth in an allowance optional claiming race at Churchill Downs Nov. 25. Since then, the trainer has given his colt a month or more between starts.
Lance and Sharilyn Gasaway said they plan to have input in whether Mystik Dan races on a short turnaround in the Preakness, with their emphasis on what's best for their colt, a homebred bay son of Goldencents .
The colt, who they bred out of the Colonel John mare Ma'am, won the Feb. 3 Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park this winter and was third in the Arkansas Derby (G1) preceding the Kentucky Derby. He now has earnings of $3,741,360, earning the bulk of that with his first-place finish worth $3.1 million in the Derby.
"It's all about the horse. See how the horse comes out of the race, give him two or three days," Lance Gasaway said. "If he comes out of it good, we'll look at it. If not—we'll look at the horse more than anything."
McPeek said he and his wife Sherri would leave for Saratoga to prepare his stable for horses for being sent there soon.
The trainer said, "There's a better-than-average chance that we're going to send him and some others to Saratoga" from Churchill Downs.
He plans to have Mystik Dan resume training in the middle of this week.
Thorpedo Anna, McPeek's Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner for owners Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards, Judy Hicks, and Sherri McPeek's Magdalena Racing, was also photographed Sunday. She could also be headed soon to Saratoga. Thorpedo Anna is pointed to either the $500,000 Acorn Stakes (G1) June 7 there or the $2 million Belmont Stakes against males. Not having originally been a Triple Crown nominee, she would require a $50,000 supplement to race in the Belmont.
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McPeek, who won the 2020 Preakness with the filly Swiss Skydiver and the 2002 Belmont Stakes with longshot Sarava, was asked if he would have reservations about running the two together in the Belmont.
"Yes, I would. I can't get Brian on both of them," he said of the jockey, whom he again credited with a ground-saving, difference-making ride in the Derby.
