Kentucky Derby: Mystik Dan wins in photo finish; Betting favorite Fierceness finishes in 15th place.

Mystik Dan won the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The winning time was 2:03.34.

He won in a photo finish over Sierra Leone and Forever Young. The Churchill Downs crowd roared as the three horses made their way down the stretch and then fell silent because no one could tell who won the race by a hair.

WOW. 😱

Mystik Dan WINS the 150th Kentucky Derby in a PHOTO FINISH! pic.twitter.com/N2jfd2TsKe

– NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 4, 2024

Mystik Dan, who entered the race at odds of 18-1, had the lead into the final turn and saw his lead reduced in the final furlong, but held on to win. Betting favorite Fierceness (3-1) ultimately finished in 15th place after a strong start.

Winning the 150th Kentucky Derby on May 4 has extra meaning for Lance Gasaway, one of Mystik Dan’s owners whose father died exactly one year ago.

“To me, this is for him,” Gasaway said. “Dad would have loved it. He loved the game.”

GO DEEPER

The people and moments that made Mystik Dan a Kentucky Derby winner

Mystik Dan is trained by Kenneth McPeek and ridden by Brian Hernandez. Both trainer and jockey also won Friday’s Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna. McPeek is the first trainer to win both the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby in the same weekend since Ben Jones accomplished the feat in 1952. Entering Friday, neither McPeak nor Hernandez had won a Kentucky Oaks or a Kentucky Derby.

“My horse was moving so comfortably that I never felt like we were going so fast,” Hernandez said. “I was smiling the whole time. “It’s an amazing feeling when you have the horse underneath you and you know they’re going to keep going and going.”

A winning $2 bet on Mystik Dan paid $39.22. A $2 Exact bet on Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone paid $258.56.

For more information on the Kentucky Derby, follow The AthleticThe live blog.