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Mark Story: Who is up and who is down after an unforgettable 2024 Kentucky Derby

Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader on

Published in Horse Racing

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Who is up and who is down after an unforgettable 150th running of the Kentucky Derby:

— Up: Kenny McPeek. For the veteran trainer from Lexington, last weekend permanently altered how his career will be viewed.

When McPeek’s Thorpedo Anna won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday, followed by the trainer’s Mystik Dan claiming the Derby in a three-horse photo finish Saturday with Sierra Leone (second) and Forever Young (third), it pushed the Tates Creek High School graduate and University of Kentucky alum into newly rarefied air for a trainer.

McPeek became the first trainer to claim the Oaks/Derby double in the same year since Ben Jones, the iconic Calumet Farm conditioner, did it in 1952 with Real Delight (Oaks) and Hill Gail (Derby).

With Mystik Dan’s Derby win following victories by the McPeek-trained Sarava in the 2002 Belmont Stakes and Swiss Skydiver in the 2020 Preakness, the trainer has now achieved the “career Triple Crown.”

“Goosebumps,” McPeek said Saturday, when asked to reflect on the magnitude of his latest achievements.

 

— Down: Chad Brown. The Kentucky Derby gods continue to torment Brown.

With the hard-closing Sierra Leone edged out of victory by Mystik Dan’s nose, the trainer is now 0 for 8 in the Derby with two second-place finishes, a third, a fourth and a fifth.

“You get beat a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it’s a tough one” to take, Brown said Saturday.

— Up: Brian Hernandez Jr. Long more accomplished at his craft than celebrated in his profession, the Kentucky-based jockey rewarded the faith of his longtime patron, Kenny McPeek, by riding Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan to their victories.

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