When reviewing the May 4 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, Follow the ghost led and stayed on the inside under Joel Rosario for the first six furlongs of the quarter-mile classic.
Then you look a little further into the scene and see Mystik Dan and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. and you realize that there is another racing lane, or lane and a half, inside the Track Phantom location. This was the smooth, error-free course that Mystik Dan and Hernandez occupied throughout the race on their way to Derby glory.
That is the rarely used path that Calvin Borel guided Harness that bird won in 2009, or was it Borel’s internal trip in Super savings or Street feel ? Yes, we’ve been here before and it’s still something to see. After the race, Hernandez, who has always felt comfortable in that tough inside lane, said he watched Borel’s magical derby before this year’s 150th edition.
To carry out such a plan requires a certain honesty in evaluating the horse. That might not be a plan you’d think to execute if you believe you have the best runner. The risk would be too great. Trained by Kenny McPeek, Mystik Dan comes in with two wins in six starts and the recently finished Arkansas Derby (G1) 4 1/4 lengths behind his Kentucky Derby rival Steel only who is not considered one of the top two or three horses in the Kentucky Derby.
According to that assessment, seizing opportunities and saving land makes sense.
“The last 20 years I’ve been driving in Kentucky, and as a kid from Louisiana, I had the honor of sitting in the same corner as Calvin Borel. So I got to watch him drive those Derbys all those years,” Hernandez said. “When Mystik Dan was in the third hole, I watched a couple of his matches there between Super Saver and Mine That Bird. I said: You know what? We’ll roll the dice.
“And that’s the nice thing about Kenny. He gives me jobs like that.”
Once that decision is made, the horse and rider have completed their task. Connections only need to look twice to be confident that Mystik Dan will respond within. On February 3 in the Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park Mystik Dan had broken away from the number 10 position and through Hernandez’s magician-like maneuvers, Hernandez would find himself racing inside in the first turn. He then tried to keep his ground before squeezing through a small hole inside the car in front. Otto the conqueror entered the round having reached eight lengths.
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Sound familiar?
Although the margin of victory will be considerably tighter in the Kentucky Derby, Southwestern’s margin is nearly identical to Saturday’s classic win. In the Southwest, Mystik Dan finished eight lengths ahead of runner-up Just Steel, who, according to Equibase GPS chart, ran 41 feet farther than the winner. Mystik Dan covered 5,618 feet that day—the shortest distance of any field runner and just eight feet farther than the race’s 1/16-mile distance.
With that race in its recent history, all entrants can be confident that they have a horse disciplined enough to race close to the rail and brave enough to go over a gap (or a half space!) when requested.
“We think we have the right type of horse to give him that kind of ride,” Hernandez said. “So we quickly found our spot under the wire the first time. Then from there, he was great and comfortable all the way through. I’m really proud of him for he can move easily.”
On a weekend at Churchill Downs where many riders were staying out of the way on the inside, Hernandez and Mystik Dan found room on the inside in the first furlong, easing past Dornoch , who started from the inside post. They then switched to a road that wasn’t used for the rest of the weekend.
It’s a no-fail approach, but like Southwest, Mystik Dan will again take the shortest route—6,608 feet—of any horse on the battlefield. runner-up Sierra Leone who finished just inches behind Mystik Dan, having followed 6,631 feet Equibase GPS chart. Youth forever , just inches behind the runner-up, covered 6,647 feet. In a race measured in inches, Mystik Dan ran 23 feet less than Sierra Leone and 39 feet less than Forever Young.
Sierra Leone, who broke through from the No. 2 position under Tyler Gaffalione, also saved points early but took eight swings home. Forever Young charged in from the start and was trailed by Ryusei Sakai in 11th place. Like Southwest, Mystik Dan again only went 8 feet more than the minimum for the race, this time by 1 1/4 mile.
After the race, Hernandez recorded how the plan was executed and credited the horse with carrying it out.
“When I asked him to hit where I needed to go right before we said straight — to get a little bit of separation on the deeper guys — he did that,” Hernandez said. “He jumped down quickly and we were able to get that separation, and that made the difference in them not getting to him at the line.”
This Derby win owes a lot to Hernandez’s riding magic.
“Wow, this is typical Brian,” McPeek said. He knows what to do out there. I always have great faith in him.” “Between the pole position draw and the work that Brian did, it gave us a great opportunity because we kept the ground, kept the ground, kept the ground. And when you Looking at that finishing photo, I think we needed all of that to hold on to that second and third place horse.”
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