The 2024 Kentucky Derby was as thrilling as it gets. The 150th Run for the Roses finished in breathtaking fashion in a three-way photo finish in the closes race the event has seen since 1996. Many are still buzzing about the result, including some controversy involving jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who was riding runner-up Sierra Leone.
Gaffalione has been ordered to do a film review of the race with stewards on Thursday. Gaffalione could face discipline after the review.
The incident in question came on the final straightaway as Sierra Leone and Forever Young closed on eventual winner Mystik Dan. Gaffalione and Sierra Leone were positioned on the outside, with Forever Young to their left and Mystik Dan on the inside. As the horses neared the finish, Gaffalione reached out with his left arm and appeared to grab Forever Young, ridden by jockey Ryusei Sakai. He maintained contact for a few seconds as the horses appeared to be jostling for position.
Here is the statement from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued on Monday:
“The Stewards review every race in Kentucky live and by video replay before posting it official and they followed the same procedure for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. After conducting their standard review of the race, determining no further review or investigation was necessary to conclude there were no incidents that altered the finish of the race, and seeing there were no objections filed, the Stewards posted the Kentucky Derby official. Following the race, the Stewards ordered Tyler Gaffalione, jockey aboard Sierra Leone, to film review on May 9, 2024. The Stewards conduct film reviews routinely to review the conduct of jockeys during a race. The Stewards, in their discretion, can take disciplinary action against a jockey following the review.”
It’s unclear what will happen as a result of the review, but SI’s Pat Forde speculated a short suspension would likely be the most that would come of it. And it could result in no punishment at all.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was among the celebrities enjoying an afternoon at the 2024 Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon.
He flexed a bit of fashion, too. Kelce, who signed a two-year contract extension with the Chiefs earlier this week, donned a white pinstripe suit with a blue top hat to the event.
Kelce and the Chiefs will reunite later this month when organized team activities begin May 20. The 34-year-old tight end will be chasing a third straight Super Bowl title and his eighth career 1,000-yard season in 2024 after coming up just 16 yards short last year.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency issued a news release that raised eyebrows and revived suspicions in thoroughbred racing. In the first four months of 2024, the CBP’s Port of Cincinnati office intercepted eight shipments of venom from snakes, scorpions and spiders, plus other substances used as performance enhancers in horses.
The venoms have been used at racetracks as numbing agents for horses, allowing them to run through injuries. The shipments were coming from Mexico, according to the release, and some were headed to people “with nexus to racing or other horse performance venues.”
With the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, this drug bust was another periodic reminder of the drug cloud and attendant equine safety issues that hover over horse racing. So was the recent New York Times documentary, “Broken Horses,” which examined the spates of equine deaths that rocked the sport last year—including 12 at Churchill Downs in the weeks before and after the Derby, which led to an unprecedented shutdown and relocation of the track’s spring meet. And there was the news from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas about two horses under the care of trainer Tim Martin who died suddenly this week.
There are many people attempting to clean up the sport, and progress has been made. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) is making strides as a regulatory body, though resistance persists in some corners. In general, racetrack equine deaths have declined over time (though there was a slight rise last year, up from 1.25 per 1,000 starts in 2022 to 1.32 in ’23). It’s harder now to sweep aside horse deaths without some measure of accountability.
But controversies past and present are always close at hand. Take a glance at the entries for the Derby, and a couple of names provide context for the inner conflicts of racing.
One is trainer Saffie Joseph, who will saddle Catalytic in the Run for the Roses. Last year at this time, Joseph was sent packing from Churchill after two of his horses died suddenly, Parents Pride and Chasing Artie. Joseph was suspended and his Derby colt, Lord Miles, was not allowed to run. “I was a scapegoat,” Joseph said at the time, inferring that the track had to find someone to punish amid a cluster of pre-Derby horse deaths.
By the end of June, Joseph had been reinstated at Churchill after a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission investigation. "We remain deeply concerned about the condition of Parents Pride and Chasing Artie that led to their sudden death,” said Bill Mudd, president and chief operating officer of Churchill Downs, Inc. “However, given the details available to us as a result of the KHRC investigation, there is no basis to continue Joseph's suspension.”
Joseph, who said he has never spoken to Churchill CEO Bill Carstanjen, is wondering where he needs to go to have his reputation restored after necropsies of the horses did not conclude anything nefarious.
“It crushes you,” he says. “I’m glad everything worked out and the truth was revealed. One of the horses had rat poison in it—they said that the level wasn’t enough to cause it, but they’re not going to say that. But if you look at the report, it says that. Did that cause it? We don’t know.
“I knew we didn’t do anything. It destroys you.”
Kentucky Derby horse Track Phantom is co-owned by Brewster and trained by Steve Asmussen.
Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA
Another name: Clark Brewster, part owner of Derby runner Track Phantom. He’s better known in racing as Bob Baffert’s voluble, caustic and contentious lawyer.
Baffert is the biggest trainer in the sport and also a current pariah at Churchill. He won a record-breaking seven Kentucky Derbys but had to give the last one back, the 2021 triumph by Medina Spirit, which was stripped after the horse tested positive for a prohibited race-day medication. That has spurred an endless feud between Baffert and Carstanjen.
Baffert initially was assessed a two-year ban from competition at Churchill, knocking him out of the 2022 and ’23 Derbys. Baffert sued Churchill in March ’22, but the case was dismissed last year. Then last July, the suspension was extended another year, with a Churchill release saying that "Mr. Baffert continues to peddle a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit … A trainer who is unwilling to accept responsibility for multiple drug test failures in our highest-profile races cannot be trusted to avoid future misconduct."
That showdown added another chapter this spring when Amr Zedan, owner of the Baffert-trained standout Muth, attempted to sue his way into this Derby. That suit, which cited “Carstanjen egomania” in arguing that Baffert was being unfairly punished, also was unsuccessful. But Muth looms as a potential Preakness favorite and Triple Crown spoiler two weeks after the Derby.
On the slight chance that long-shot Track Phantom wins the Derby, keep the cameras rolling on Brewster. If he encounters Carstanjen in the winner’s circle it could be spicy.
Churchill Downs has gone to massive lengths to gussy itself up for the 150th Derby, sinking $200 million into remodeling its paddock area. The result is a three-level masterpiece of modern architecture that dramatically modernizes the place. It is primarily targeted for use one weekend a year by the rich, of course, but will also be enjoyed and appreciated by everyday racegoers for years to come.
There is change on the other side of the grandstand as well, less glamorous but more closely aligned to the survival of horse racing: The dirt racing surface has been redone. It’s darker and, some trainers said in recent days, deeper than it had been. A new fleet of tractors harrow the dirt between races and during morning training hours, and new methods of testing the track have been implemented. The horses are wearing biofeedback sensors that can help spot issues with stride and potentially flag developing injuries. A safety management committee composed of trainers, jockeys and other track workers meets once a week.
How much will all that help? It remains to be seen. But the changes are a tacit acknowledgment that the one thing that can kill horse racing is the killing of horses.
Walking by the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle after the biggest victory of his life, trainer Kenny McPeek held the hand of his daughter, Annie. McPeek looked at her and, with his other hand, held his index finger and thumb about three inches apart. That was his assessment of the margin of victory in one of the most dramatic Derbies in the 150-year history of the race.
A three-horse photo finish, the first in the Derby since 1947, turned the 1 1/4-mile race into a withering battle of inches in the final strides. Nobody knew in real time who won—Mystik Dan on the inside, or the hard-charging duo of Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the middle of the track. When the official order of finish was posted it evoked gasps and roars from the Churchill Downs crowd of 156,710, with Mystik Dan declared the winner by a nose over Sierra Leone in second and Forever Young third.
Mystik Dan’s win was a significant upset at odds of 18-1, but the first career Derby win for McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez nearly got away from them at the last second. Hernandez had gotten Mystik Dan clear in the stretch and was seemingly home free, driving for the finish line. Hernandez had no idea what was coming for him.
“Three jumps before the wire,” he said, “I didn’t see them at all.”
Then the pursuers loomed alongside. Sierra Leone and Forever Young waged their own battle and evoked memories of the 1933 “Fighting Finish” Derby, in which the jockeys of Brokers Tip and Head Play engaged in literal hand-to-hand combat in the stretch. Sierra Leone jockey Tyler Gafflione reached out with his left hand to seemingly grab the saddle or reins of Forever Young as they dueled. In the end, they both came up agonizingly short.
Past the wire, Hernandez thought he won but wasn’t sure as Mystik Dan galloped out around the turn. The jockey asked an outrider if the result was official yet, but it wasn’t.
“That was the longest two minutes in sports,” Hernandez said. “From the fastest two minutes (as the Derby is known) to the longest two minutes.”
After that brief eternity, the outrider got the news and relayed it to Hernandez: “You just won the Kentucky Derby.”
That moment capped an epic 25 hours for McPeek and Hernandez, who teamed up to win the Kentucky Oaks Friday with monster filly Thorpedo Anna. McPeek became the first trainer since 1952 to win that double, and Hernandez was the first jockey to do so since 2009. Neither man operates at the highest echelon of horse racing, but they stand astride the sport today.
In the days leading up to those races, McPeek radiated an almost outrageous confidence. “It wouldn’t surprise me if I won both,” he said two weeks ago.
The Oaks unfolded largely as expected Friday, with 4-1 Thorpedo Anna (“a grizzly,” McPeek says) dominating. Then came the harder part Saturday.
McPeek arrived at his Churchill barn at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, opened the back of his Mercedes SUV to let out his dog, and greeted reporters with this line: “Let’s do it again tonight.”
And then they did, with Hernandez delivering a ride that was both smart and daring.
The 38-year-old Louisiana native, who rides regularly at Churchill, got Mystik Dan out of the gate cleanly and steered him from the No. 3 post quickly to the rail for a ground-saving trip. Hernandez kept Mystik Dan tucked into a pocket of clear ground, never farther back than eighth place, settling the colt into an easy stride. “He was just cruising along so nicely and so comfortable,” Hernandez said.
From there, Hernandez drafted behind Track Phantom through the far turn. When Track Phantom drifted just a touch off the rail, Hernandez pounced. He urged Mystik Dan into the hole like a running back finding a sliver of daylight.
Joel Rosario appeared to try to swerve Track Phantom back over to cut him off. The two horses bumped hips but Mystik Dan was undeterred—he’s a smaller horse but still powered through along the rail and cut the corner into the stretch, drawing clear.
“Brian gave us a huge opportunity because we saved ground, saved ground, saved ground,” McPeek said. “And when you look at that photo finish, I think we needed all of it to hold off the two second- and third-place horses.”
It takes incredible nerve to urge a horse into a tight spot at high speed. But the Derby was on the line. It was a now-or-never moment and a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Mystik Dan, far, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr won the 150th Kentucky Derby.
Matt Stone//Courier Journal / USA TODAY
“We might have took out a little bit of the inside fence, but that's okay,” Hernandez joked.
Hernandez had spent many years at Churchill learning from the master of the inside move, Calvin Borel, who won Derbies aboard Mine That Bird and Super Saver by hugging the rail. The shortest way around the track is as close to the rail as possible.
“As a young kid out of Louisiana, I got the privilege of sitting in the same corner (in the jockeys room) as Calvin Borel,” Hernandez said. “So I got to watch him ride those Derbies all those years. And today, with Mystik Dan being in the three‑hole, I watched a couple of his rides there between Super Saver and Mine That Bird. I said, ‘You know what? We're going to roll the dice.’”
Hernandez rolled sevens, Meanwhile, favored Fierceness rolled snake eyes—getting a favorable trip and pace but fading badly in the stretch to finish 15th. Second choice Sierra Leone came running late, as expected, but couldn’t collar Mystik Dan.
Sierra Leone was a $2.3 million yearling purchase, regally bred and seemingly destined for this moment. Mystik Dan was a homebred owned by Arkansas businessman Lance Gasaway, a former standout small-college wide receiver for the Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils who had never gotten a horse to the Derby before.
Asked what he was going to do Saturday night to celebrate, Gasaway said, “Probably drink a lot of alcohol.”
Gasaway got into racing through his father, who died a year ago Saturday. His stable isn’t lavish, but the decision—informed by input from McPeek—to breed their mare, Ma’am, to former Derby runner Goldencents proved to be the master stroke that produced Mystik Dan.
“This isn’t some zillion-dollar operation,” McPeek said. “We didn’t throw money at this. We thoughtfully went through it all, and it’s amazing.”
The 61-year-old McPeek has been around the sport for a long time, rising to within reach of winning a Derby in the 1990s. He finished second in 1995 with Tejano Run and had the 2001 favorite, Harlan’s Holiday, who finished seventh. Meanwhile, the Lexington, Ky., product and University of Kentucky graduate dabbled in things like developing an app (Horse Races Now) for videos of races. He’s always been a racing wonk who loves to talk about the inner workings of the sport.
“My grandfather took me to the races at Keeneland when I was boy,” he said. “Learned how to read a pedigree. Used to go to the Keeneland library and read about good horses. Went to [Kentucky] and found the [agriculture] library—in the basement of the agriculture library, I read every thoroughbred and blood horse record ever printed when I was in college.”
He’s won some big races—the 2002 Belmont, the 2020 Preakness, the Kentucky Oaks on Friday—but the Derby had remained elusive. For a Kentuckian, that was tough. Now, he’s reached the pinnacle.
By a matter of inches. The margin between making history and suffering a staggering defeat was that tiny. The three-horse photo finish in the 150th Kentucky Derby will be talked about in the sport for the next 150 years.
