LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The thing about a life-changing event that takes two minutes to finish: Every move, every decision, even every lack of decision, matters. Except it's not just the moves, decisions and non-decisions made in those two minutes that matter; it is a life of divided decisions that combine to create a life and, in one case, on a muggy Saturday afternoon, make history.
Unraveling the story of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan's storied career across the barrier and into the record books requires much more than retracing the track at Churchill Downs. It includes the decision not to rent a dinner date more than 30 years ago and a search for information about blood in the basement of a university library years before even that. It requires a commitment to a formerly retired mare and a father who convinces his son to fall in love with horse racing. A jockey is required to study another cyclist riding the railroad and a partnership between a group of people who compete with the big names but who intentionally never cared about being one of them.
In the historic 150th running of this race, Mystik Dan pulled off an impressive finish, beating second-place Sierra Leone and third-place Forever Young in the first three-horse photo finish since 1947. So close was the finish, he didn't even win Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. was sure what happened and asked a guard while helping Mystik Dan if he had won the Kentucky Derby.
It took five agonizing minutes for the answer to come, and the 156,710 spectators present went from euphoria as the three horses approached the finish line to almost stunned silence as they, like the jockey, awaited the decision.
Finally, Mystik Dan's name appeared on the big board, the crowd in the stands screamed with joy, and the shooting guard shared the news with Hernandez. “It took about two minutes, and finally when they said, 'Yeah, you just won the Kentucky Derby, I thought, 'Oh wow, that's a long two minutes.' “It was the longest two minutes in sports, from the fastest two minutes to the longest by far.”
Perhaps the only person who wasn't surprised was coach Ken McPeek. The Kentucky-based coach practically did like Babe Ruth and made the decision for him all week. On Friday, when he sat at a press conference to celebrate his Kentucky Oaks winner, Thorpedo Anna, it was suggested that perhaps he would return for another winning press conference the next day. “Count on it,” he said. When the promise was fulfilled, McPeek celebrated on the dance floor, holding tightly onto his daughter Annie's hand.
By combining the winning ride with that of Thorpedo Anna, 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 is fitting that Hernández agreed with Borel. In a broader view of this career, the one that looks more like “It's a Wonderful Life” and considers how even the most inconsequential decisions lead to an epic life, it was Borel who Hernandez mentioned in the videos to study. Borel was known on the track as Calvin Bo-Rail for his love and comfort riding on the rail, a place many riders would prefer to avoid. When Mystik Dan reached position three, Hernandez and McPeek began talking about how they could turn what many imagined as a disadvantage into an advantage. Hernandez discovered the secret sauce in Borel's attraction summaries.
One of Mystik Dan's owners, Sharilyn Gasaway, holds the 150th Kentucky Derby trophy.
In the immediate here and now, in the 2:03.34 it took Mystik Dan to cover the 1 ¼ miles, the race was won because Hernandez Jr. led the horse on a brilliant ride. He followed Track Phantom along the rail, and when the lead horse gave him half a step of space, he pushed Mystik Dan through the narrow space that opened like a beam of light under a door frame, clinging to the railing. finish line to win. for a nose. Favorite Fierceness finished in 15th place.
But this race was won long before Hernández posted the video. It was earned about 40 years ago when a young McPeek buried himself in the University of Kentucky's agricultural library to learn about BloodHorse and Thoroughbred registries. Brought to Keeneland by his grandfather, McPeek never found himself doing anything but horse racing. He jokes that his studies in the basement of the agricultural library might have given him better grades than his normal courses, but it's only because he nurtured a passion.
However, all that studying and snooping created a sort of horse racing everyman. He prefers to touch every detail of horse racing and is respected both as a bloodstock agent and as a trainer. He even created an app, Horses Now, for replays. He is a great believer in the industry, well-liked and respected among his peers for his loyalty, decency and his willingness to keep things simple. Horse racing is big business and expensive, as 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 do it with Calumet Farm horses,” he said, citing the large breeding conglomerate in Lexington. “We did it with working-class horses.”
McPeek trained Mystik Dan's mare Ma'am, and when she was on the verge of retiring, he convinced Lance, Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway not to retire her but to breed her to Goldencents, a 2013 Derby starter. What they agreed to was It is due to the trust the owners placed in McPeek, but also to their own roots in horse racing and their small moments that led to a small racehorse with the greatest of victories.
You could argue that Lance Gasaway is the Mystik Dan of college football. That is to say, perhaps a little overlooked. A record holder and Hall of Famer, he starred not at Arkansas but at Arkansas-Monticello, where he was an NAIA All-American for the Boll Weevils. He took up horse racing at the urging of his father, Clint, and the two teamed up at Oaklawn, his local track. His biggest and best chance at the spotlight came with Wells Bayou, who won the Louisiana Derby and was the target of the Kentucky Derby until COVID hit and moved the race to September.
Clint died about a year ago, and as Lance sat on the stand, he was a little surprised to remember 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, when Ma'am was about to retire, Clint decided that he was getting too old to raise horses. Lance chose to bring his first cousin, Brent.
Thirty-five years ago, Brent was supposed to meet his now wife Sharilyn for a date, but he was late. And then later. Turns out he was on the track and still racing. Sharilyn wasn't thrilled at all, at least until Brent popped the question that night. When Sharilyn left her full-time job, the couple opted to pursue horse racing full-time, around the same time Clint and Lance entered the game. When Lance needed a new partner to breed and eventually own Mystik Dan, Sharilyn and Brent made a lot of sense.
Sitting next to each other, sandwiched between McPeek and Hernandez, Lance and Sharilyn looked a little wide-eyed and happily dazed. When asked how they would celebrate, Lance deadpanned, “I don't know. “I had never won the Derby before.”
Neither does McPeek. But now, with his own Triple Crown (he won the Preakness in 2020 with Swiss Skydiver and the Belmont in 2002 with Sarqva), he at least had an idea. “I'm going to go back to the barn and hug all the staff and all the family,” he said. “And then my house is wide open if anyone wants to come.”
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. on Mystik Dan: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
