LOUISVILLE, Ky.LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The 150th Kentucky Derby had to finish this way, right? It had to build the drama like an Mozartian opera, scorch the lungs for all their rose-covered worth and leave those in tow gasping in wide-eyed wonderment.
A moment so historic, so wanting and ripe for theater, had to deliver a heart-stopping, jaw-dropping thrill ride of a finish. Predictable simply would not do. Mediocrity never would be allowed through the Central Avenue gates.
A marvel, this one. As the trio of Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone and Forever Young bobbed and snorted to the verge of history, it became the closest three-way photo finish since 1947, when Holy Cross won the NCAA basketball crown.
Holy Something, this.
Mystik Dan frantically finished this much better than Sierra Leone, the smallest of margins measureable in an endeavor with the deepest continuous roots in American sports.
Two minutes, 3.34 seconds of riveting, rollicking racing insanity.
“Unbelievable,” winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said.
Has anything so unforgettable, so heart-pounding been so efficiently explained?
Something that started a mile-and-quarter earlier, a mile-and-quarter that began with hopes and dreams and breathtaking possibility, left a trio reaching and straining within a span of inches.
The top of the stretch became a seven-wide guessing game, keeping outcomes of all sizes, stripes and degrees of unlikelihood alive exhiliratingly late in a race that sits on mothballs for 364 days.
The elation of Myskik Dan trainer Kenny McPeek? Boundless.
The deflation of Sierra Leone counterpart Chad Brown? Derby sized.
“You get beat by a nose in the Kentucky Derby,” he said, “it’s a tough one.”
The victory came via a daring rail ride by Hernandez, who saved ground, stayed true and avoided the endless pitfalls of being inside during the most congested race of its kind.
He waited, endlessly patient. He pounced, at the absolute right time.
Hernandez eyeballed his moment in the second turn in front of 156,170 who leaned in to move closer to the glorious chaos beginning to unfold.
The burst felt like a slippery NFL running back squirting into the daylight.
“I had a nice little pocket there. I was like, ‘Well, we’ll just sit here and let them pile up,’ ” Hernandez explained. “Once Track Phantom move off the rail just a half a step, we were able to get through there. We might have taken out a little bit of the inside fence, but that’s OK.”
The dizzying crescendo at the finish caught everyone wondering how all this would be sorted, including and especially the winner.
“Right at the wire, they surged late and I was like, ‘Oh, God, did we win the Kentucky Derby? (or not),” said Hernandez, who asked the outrider who accompanied he and horse right after the race. “That’s a long two minutes. Yes, that was the longest two minutes in sports. The fastest two minutes and the longest.”
Did reaching back to 1947 fail to satisfy the way-back machine?
Well, McPeek became the first trainer to win Friday’s filly showcase Kentucky Oaks and the Derby the same weekend since fabled trainer Ben Jones with Real Delight and Hill Gail in 1952.
“Wow,” said McPeek, to ask for his reaction to the dusty nugget. “You know, wow.”
It was more than simply the duel between Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone. As the runner-up and Forever Young charged and labored to contend, you couldn’t slide a racing program between them at the frenzied finish.
Mystik Dan had seized the shortest route and built a cushion that initially looked as if it would continue growing into a crowning rather than a contest.
Then, the thawing began.
The lead melted, first to interesting, then eye catching, finally and undeniably thrilling. The celebration, as uncertain and uncharted as it was, was preparing to begin.
“I have no idea yet,” said Hernandez, asked for the plan. “I’ve never won the Derby before.”
Owner Larry Gasaway took a, well, shot.
“Probably drink a lot of alcohol,” he said.
Hernandez was supposed to take a 6 a.m. flight to New Orleans to attend Jazz Fest. He was quizzed about the probability he would make that flight.
The permanent postrace grin widened.
“I think we’re going to have to reschedule now,” he said.
The combination of Mystik Dan, Hernandez and McPeek left Louisville with $3.1 million of the record $5 million purse. Add an immeasurable slice of history as part of the bounty.
At the heart of it, this wasn’t about missing Southern California trainer Bob Baffert, the momentarily banished face of the sport. It wasn’t about the disastrous Derby week of a year ago with dead horses and a deluge of questions. It wasn’t about the darkening financial clouds that have pushed horse racing perilously close to the cliff’s edge.
It was about what has made the Kentucky Derby the ultimate measuring stick of a sport that began in 1875, 10 years after the end of the Civil War.
At its best, a thrill ride.
“I just believe in mojo,” McPeek said.
And Mystik Dan. The horse paid $39.22, but in the end the whole of it felt priceless.
Unbelievable, Hernandez reminded us.
History demands a flourish. Sometimes, on the first Saturday in May, it delivers. Lucky us.
