Mystik Dan wins thrilling 2024 Kentucky Derby race

The 150th Kentucky Derby could not have gone better for Mystik Dan, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., or for horse racing fans. The biggest event in horse racing delivered in spades on Saturday. Three-year-old Mystik Dan stunned the competition, coming away with a photo finish over one of the pre-race favourites Sierra Leone and fellow outsider Forever Young. 
 
Mystik Dan came in at $21.00 odds at the horse racing betting sites, making him one of the biggest outsiders in the race. Despite the odds, he delivered one of the most memorable Kentucky Derby finishes in recent history.  

2024 Kentucky Derby winner and results 

Mystik Dan just pulled off one of the most impressive races in recent horse racing history. The relatively-unknown Kenny McPeek-trained horse came into the 150th Kentucky Derby with just $21.00 odds. Seven horses had longer odds. 11 had equal or shorter. A middle of the pack finish would have been respectable for the three-year-old. Instead, he won the whole thing, and did so in spectacular fashion.  
 
When the 2024 Kentucky Derby finished, it looked like we had a three-way tie. Sierra Leone, Forever Young, and Mystik Dan looked literally neck-and-neck. If any race could be called a photo finish, it was this one.  
 
It took several minutes for race organisers to actually announce the 2024 Kentucky Derby winner. In the end, Mystik Dan and his jockey Brian Hernandez Jr won by a nose, earning USD$3.1 million (AUD$4.69 million) in prize money for the first-place finish.  
 
Sierra Leone ($4.00) was ruled to have finished in second. Forever Young ($11.00) came away with a respectable third-place finish.  
 
This race was just the 26th Kentucky Derby to be decided by the length of a neck or less.

Big day for trainer Kenny McPeek

While racing fans everywhere were revelling in the amazing Kentucky Derby finish, few were celebrating more than trainer Kenny McPeek.  
 
The Lexington, Kentucky-based thoroughbred trainer has almost 2,000 career wins to his name, including Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes wins. The Kentucky Derby had eluded him though. Before Sunday, that is. He’s now completed the Triple Crown and solidified himself as one of the best to ever do it.  

Fierceness disappoints on big day 

Mystik Dan’s big win has dominated the early post-race headlines. Fierceness jockey John Velazquez and trainer Todd Pletcher are probably very happy about that.  
 
Their horse, Fierceness, came into the Kentucky Derby as a big favourite with $3.50 odds. He did not live up to that tag at all.  
 
Fierceness finished in a disappointing 15th place. He was in the thick of it heading into the final stretch, but seemingly ran out of gas and fell back as the race went on