The long way around
Derby-winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. made history by a nose. It took two decades.
Still clad in his black and green racing silks and splattered with mud, Brian Hernandez Jr. paused for a moment before walking up the steps of the Kentucky Derby Winner’s Circle last year. His wife, Jamie, looked back with concern.
“Are you OK?” she asked.
Hernandez was fine. He just needed a moment to let it all sink in—that Mystik Dan had pulled off a win in the 150th Kentucky Derby, and that Hernandez had become just the eighth jockey to win the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby on the same weekend.
“It was one of those moments you dream of your whole life,” Hernandez says, looking back on 2024.
The ride of his life had shot him into the history books. But for Hernandez, success isn’t just being the best rider he can be. It’s also showing up for his family and his community, including his adopted hometown of Shelbyville.
“I’m proud that we can have someone of Brian’s stature sharing with our community,” says Shelby County Judge-Executive Dan Ison, who proclaimed May 20, 2024, Brian Hernandez Jr. Day in Shelby County.
Hernandez, Jamie and their three kids have been Shelby County residents, and consumer-members of Shelby Energy, since the spring of 2018, when they purchased their farm outside of Simpsonville
The nature of his work demands near-constant travel, but Hernandez stays involved in the community through the kids, Joshlyn, 10, Benjamin, 8, and Annabelle, 5, who keep their parents busy with school events, sports, Cub Scouts and pony riding.
Leslie Springston is the principal of Simpsonville Elementary, where the Hernandez children go to school. Last year, she says, Brian and Jamie spoke to first graders before the Oaks and the Derby, sharing about Kentucky’s equine culture and opportunities in the racing industry.
“For our first graders, Oaks and Derby week last year turned into an exciting community and family event,” Springston says, “because not only was it something happening locally, but it was also somebody that they know.”
As a horseman himself, Ison sees Hernandez as an example of the skill, dedication and hard work required to succeed—values he tries to impart in his own mentoring relationships.
“You don’t just walk into Churchill Downs and say, ‘I’m Brian. I’m here to be the next Derby winner,’” Ison says. “No, that happened over years. That happened over sacrifices.”
THE STARTING GATE
Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, Hernandez was born into a racing family. He and his little brother, Colby, also a jockey, idolized their dad, Brian Sr., who retired from riding in 2014. Brian had dreamed since childhood of one day winning the Kentucky Derby. That’s what he told his parents at age 6, wearing his dad’s jockey pants and riding his bike in big loops as he pictured himself perched on the back of a thoroughbred, fighting for position in the world’s most storied race.
“Our parents really couldn’t afford day care, so instead of day care, during summertime Colby and I would get up and have to go to the track every morning with Dad,” he says. “We just kind of grew up on the back side of the racetrack. That’s where the love for racing and horses grew from.”
Hernandez got an early start in the sport, exercising horses for trainer Dale Angelle when he was only 12, and during high school, he rode nighttime races at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana. Early on, he crossed paths with another jockey, Shane Sellers, who would later connect him with Kentucky agent Fred Aime.
When he was 18, nearing high school graduation, Hernandez traveled to Louisville for a week of firsts: his first time on a plane, his first visit to the Bluegrass State and his first win at Churchill Downs. Aime had gotten him a ride on a horse named Cherokee Prospect for trainer Pat Byrne.
Hernandez took the win, then traveled back to Louisiana for graduation.
“It’s the home of the Kentucky Derby,” he says, recalling his first experience of the state. “You walk into Churchill Downs, and you’ve got guys like Shane Sellers, Pat Day, all these Hall of Fame riders sitting there in the jock’s room. It was kind of surreal to be an 18-year-old kid just coming from Evangeline Downs to Kentucky.”
Following high school graduation in Louisiana, Hernandez moved to Kentucky full time. It wasn’t an easy transition.
“When I first got there, you know, as an 18-year-old kid just graduated high school, I didn’t care for it a whole lot,” he says. “All my friends and everything were back in Louisiana. But you grow to love it as you have success … and now Kentucky is home.”
Louisiana connections in Kentucky helped smooth the way. Cajun country has a long history of racing excellence, rooted in early 19th century “bush tracks”—rural, loosely regulated courses that served as proving grounds for jockeys and trainers. The Cajun tradition is still strong in horse racing, and when he moved to Kentucky, Hernandez had a built-in community of jockeys who helped him feel at home in the Bluegrass State.
“I was able to go right into a corner with fellow Louisianans that understand the culture, and they just made it very welcoming and easy to make that transition.”
The Louisiana connection remains strong. During the winter season, Hernandez and Colby race at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. It’s a family reunion, of sorts, as their parents, Brian Sr. and Stephanie, come to stay in the city and Brian Sr. works in the jockey’s room as their valet. The job entails saddling horses throughout the day, in addition to ensuring equipment is prepared and ready to go for when Hernandez and Colby are ready to start their races.
At Keeneland and Churchill Downs, Hernandez’s valet for more than 20 years has been Shane Borel, the nephew of Cajun jockey Calvin Borel.
“That’s been one of the best things about my career—I’ve been fortunate enough to be associated with the same guys,” Hernandez says. “They’ve all become family over the years.”
BREAKING THROUGH
“Brian is amazing,” Mystik Dan trainer Kenny McPeek told NBC during a post- Derby interview. “Probably one of the most underrated riders in racing—but not anymore, right?”
McPeek’s phrasing hinted at the long, persistent slog Hernandez endured to achieve eventual success. Despite an auspicious beginning—he won the Eclipse Award for apprentice jockey in 2004—Hernandez struggled during his early career.
“A lot of people always thought that Brian was a really good rider,” says Frank Bernis, who has been Hernandez’s agent since 2012. “He just never could break through.”
Hernandez met his wife, Jamie, in 2008, when she worked as an assistant trainer for Steve Asmussen. They married in 2012, the summer before a career-transforming win in the 2012 Breeder’s Cup.
“I got lucky,” Hernandez told BloodHorse magazine, describing how trainer Ian Wilkes had initially picked him to ride Fort Larned in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap in Altoona, Iowa. From there, Hernandez rode Fort Larned to victory in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga, and most consequentially, the Breeder’s Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park.
Reflecting on the Derby win and the attention it’s brought over the past year, Bernis says Hernandez is the same rider he was before. The only difference is luck.
“We’ve been lucky and gotten more opportunities—and that’s really what it’s about in this business,” he says. “Sometimes you just need a break, and you need the right people to see what you can do when you have the horse.”
It wasn’t just luck, of course. In a sport where races are won by inches, skill and preparation are everything. When opportunity knocks, Bernis says, a jockey has to be ready—and part of that preparation is studying the competition. Before a race, Hernandez pores over the racing form, learning everything he can.
“I think it’s had a lot to do with his success,” Bernis says. “He knows, going out there, any time an opponent has a certain habit, whether it’s a horse or a rider, he can put himself in a position to take advantage if that horse or rider does something they’re prone to.”
All jockeys worth their salt study, Hernandez says. It’s the obvious thing to do, especially in advance of an opportunity like the Derby.
“You put that extra effort into making sure you’re prepared,” he says. “You only have that one opportunity to try to make the most of it.”
Going into the Derby, Hernandez watched replays for every horse that was going to be in the race. He also reviewed winning strategies from Derbies past—especially jockey Calvin Borel’s rail-hugging ride in 2010.
“I knew that with Mystik Dan, we needed the right kind of trip for him to win,” he says. “When I watched (Borel’s) ride on the Pletcher horse, Super Saver, I was like, ‘Whoa—that’s the trip I need.’ So, I wanted to give Mystik Dan the Super Saver trip. That was where it all came from.”
THE RUN FOR THE ROSES
A crowd of more than 156,000 people gathered under Churchill Downs’ twin spires on May 4, 2024, to watch the 150th running of the world’s most storied horse race. They packed the balconies and lounges, crowded the grandstand and spilled into the infield, decked in canary yellow and tulip pink, eager for a glimpse of history during the two minutes that can forever define a jockey’s career.
Mystik Dan, an 18-1 longshot, had drawn the No. 3 post, close enough to the rail that Hernandez believed he could claim the inside. It was a risky maneuver. The rail is the shortest route around the track, making it a crowded position—especially early in the race.
Twenty thoroughbreds exploded from the gate. Hernandez swiftly guided Mystik Dan to the rail, navigating past Sierra Leone and Dornoch to his left. Track Phantom took an early lead as Mystik Dan fell back in the first turn.
On the backstretch, Mystik Dan still hugged the rail in sixth place, half a length behind Epic Ride. Ahead, Hernandez could see the narrow window of daylight between the bright white rail and the churning bay flanks of Track Phantom, ridden by Joel Rosario.
Track Phantom flew past the half-mile pole, still in the lead, with Fierceness and Just Steel in close pursuit. In the far turn, Hernandez’s path narrowed, then nearly closed, as Track Phantom fought to maintain the lead against Fierceness, who was speeding along the outside.
Coming into the top of the stretch, Track Phantom drifted away from the rail, and Hernandez made his bid. Mystik Dan surged ahead, his velvet nose pointed into the vanishingly narrow path. The horses jostled, and the jockeys’ stirrups touched. But Mystik Dan and Hernandez had broken through, shaving off precious inches on the treacherous inside path.
Horse and rider tore away in the home stretch, pulling into the lead for the first time in the race. In the final 1/16 mile, Forever Young and Sierra Leone rocketed alongside Mystik Dan, sweeping under the wire for the first three-horse photo finish in the Kentucky Derby since 1947. But Mystik Dan had won by inches. Hernandez had secured his racing legacy by less than the breadth of a human hand.
Minutes crept by before an official result was announced. It wasn’t until Hernandez found himself in the Winner’s Circle that the victory he’d sought for 20 years began to feel real.
“That was the moment that I realized we just pulled off something that was …”
He paused, searching for the right word. Winning the Kentucky Derby wasn’t impossible. It never had been.
“Improbable,” he said.
