Derby Dreams Can Come True
And they did for Louisiana’s own
Native son, Brian Herandez Jr.,
who Completed a rare
Kentucky Oaks-Derby Sweep
by Denis Blake
Louisiana has long been known as a hotbed for talented jockeys who got their start on the local scene and then excelled on the national stage. With an Eclipse Award for leading apprentice jockey in 2004 and a Breeders’ Cup Classic win aboard Fort Larned in 2012, Lafayette, Louisiana native Brian Hernandez Jr. was already firmly entrenched as a top-class rider. But with his victories in the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3-4, he put himself into truly elite company and added to Louisiana’s legacy of jockeys.
Hernandez, who comes from a family of riders that includes his father, brother and sister, kicked off his dream weekend under the Twin Spires with an impressive 4 ¾-length win on Thorpedo Anna in Friday’s $1.5-million Kentucky Oaks (G1). He smartly guided the Kenny McPeek trainee through reasonable fractions on the front end, and his filly had plenty left in the tank to hold off all challengers for a relatively easy victory.
The $5-million Kentucky Derby (G1) on Saturday would be anything but easy to win, so Hernandez had to give 18-1 shot Mystik Dan, another McPeek runner, a brilliant ride to save ground along the rail and burst to the lead in the stretch. This time, however, there was no cruising to the wire, as Sierra Leone and Forever Young (JPN) rallied gamely for one of the most thrilling finishes in the history of America’s biggest race. The photo revealed that Henandez and Mystik Dan prevailed by a nose with just inches separated the three horses.
“When we got to the 1/8th pole and he was still running, I just kind of had my head down riding,” Hernandez said in a press conference after the win. “Three jumps before the wire, I didn’t see [Sierra Leone and Forever Young] at all. And then right at the wire, they surged late, and I was like: ‘Oh, God, did we win the Kentucky Derby?’ And I was asking the outrider that, and he said, ‘We think you won but they haven’t said it officially yet.’
“It took about two minutes, and then finally when they said, ‘Yeah, you’ve just won the Kentucky Derby,’ I was like, oh, wow, that’s a long two minutes.
“Yes, that was the longest two minutes in sports—from the fastest two minutes to the longest, by far.”
“It was great to win the Oaks on Friday because my wife, Jamie, and our three kids and both sets of our parents were all there so it was a joy to watch their reaction. Then to follow it up on Saturday and win the Derby, it was a proud moment to walk up to the winner’s circle with my wife and my mom and dad and to see how proud my dad was.”
Hernandez has recorded more than 2,500 wins since notching his first victory in 2003 at Delta Downs while still in high school and then capturing his first riding title at Evangeline Downs. And now he’s a Kentucky Derby winner.
“It still hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. We came into the weekend thinking we had good chances, really big chances, both Friday and Saturday. And then to just have the horses pull it off for us, we really have to thank all the guys back in the barn. They put so much work into this to have these horses ready on days like today and yesterday. It’s just—like I said, I don’t know how long it’s going to take to sink in, but it’s definitely a surreal moment right now.”
The victories were even more special for Hernandez as his Oaks-Derby riding sweep was the first since 2009, when Louisiana legend Calvin Borel turned the trick with Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird. Hernandez perhaps even played a role in that, as he rode Rachel Alexandra in her first five career starts before Borel got the mount.
“The last 20 years I’ve ridden here in Kentucky and as a young kid out of Louisiana, I got the privilege of sitting in the same corner as Calvin Borel,” he said. “So I got to watch him ride those Derbies all those years. And today, with Mystik Dan being in the threehole, I watched a couple of his rides there between the Super Saver and Mine That Bird. I said: ‘You know what? We’re going to roll the dice.’”
Hernandez not only duplicated the feat accomplished by Borel, but he also became part of the first jockey-trainer combination to win both races in the same year since 1952, when Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro and Hall of Fame trainer Ben Jones teamed up to take the Oaks with Real Delight and the Derby with Hill Gail, both owned by Calumet Farm.
While many observers gave credit to Hernandez for a great ride on Mystik Dan, his family knows better than most how hard it is to win a race like the Kentucky Oaks or Derby. His father, Brian Hernandez Sr., won more than 1,300 races in his career, and his younger brother Colby has amassed more than 2,400 wins, only about 100 less than Brian. His sister Courtney also was a jockey for a couple years. The wins were all the more special because he could celebrate it with his family.
“It was the happiest day in my life besides the birth of my three kids, and it was such a meaningful moment,” he said. “The great thing about it was that my parents were there and my grandparents and everyone else was watching on TV and celebrating. It was great to win the Oaks on Friday because my wife, Jamie, and our three kids and both sets of our parents were all there so it was a joy to watch their reaction. Then to follow it up on Saturday and win the Derby, it was a proud moment to walk up to the winner’s circle with my wife and my mom and dad and to see how proud my dad was.
“My brother Colby worked in company with both these horses in their last couple works, so it’s been so enjoyable and meaningful.”
While the Oaks-Derby double was the biggest of wins for the team of Hernandez and McPeek, they’ve been winning together for quite a while.
“It’s all business, business, business and there’s no drama; and I like no drama, especially the older I get,” McPeek said about Hernandez and his agent, Frank Bernis. “I want to know that somebody is there, that we’re—you don’t have to beg them to come. You don’t have to worry about them not showing up, conflicts, and things like that.
“But more than anything, I put Brian on horses on a daily basis, good horses and average horses, and he does a good job on every one of them. I have rarely come back and said, ‘That was horrible.’ No, I don’t have that.
“And then I’ll get outside the box and maybe I will go to Saratoga and I will ride some other riders and go, ‘Boy, I miss Brian. I miss Brian,’ because he doesn’t make very many mistakes.
“And I don’t want you to write that at all,” McPeek added with a laugh. “I don’t want anybody to know how good Brian is. But I guess the cat’s out of the bag, isn’t it?”
One week after his Derby win, Hernandez said it still seemed like a bit of a dream. That dream started as a kid, watching his father ride and hoping to one day win the Run for the Roses.
“It’s starting to sink in, but in some way I don’t think it will ever really sink in that I won the Kentucky Derby,” he said.
Statistics for Jockey Brian J. Hernandez through May 20, 2024
Source: Equibase