2024 Kentucky Derby sees record $210.7M in wagers
The 2024 Kentucky Derby set an all-time event record with $210.7 million in wagers, according to sports betting reporter Ben Fawkes.
That’s significantly up from the $188.7 million in wagers placed on “The Run for the Roses” last year. All-sources wagering on the 14 races at Churchill Downs on Saturday reached $320.5 million while wagering for Kentucky Derby Week races totaled $446.6 million, per The Courier-Journal. Both are records.
This year’s Kentucky Derby was won by Mystik Dan, a betting underdog going into Saturday’s race at Churchill Downs. As of Saturday morning, Mystik Dan was 18-1 to finish first.
Mystik Dan scored the upset during a thrilling final stretch, in which he stuck his snout just in front of Sierra Leone and Forever Young. A finish so close, it took several minutes to determine an official winner.
“This is unbelievable. That was longest few minutes I’ve ever felt in my life waiting for them to hang that number above us,” jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said after the race. “It was exciting when we hit the wire, but I wasn’t sure if we won so it was quite a rush to sit here and wait for it.”
Historic feat occurs at 2024 Kentucky Derby
With Mystik Dan’s win, Hernandez Jr. and Lexington-based trainer Kenny McPeek achieved the rare Oaks/Derby Double. The Oaks/Derby Double occurs when any jockey, trainer or owner wins both the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same calendar year. McPeek is the fourth trainer to do it and the first since Ben Jones in 1952. Hernandez became the eighth trainer to write his name into the record books and the first since Calvin Borel in 2009.
“Wow,” McPeek said of the feat. “For three weeks, I felt like we were going to win both races, I can’t tell you why. I believe in mojo. I believe in positive energy, and we had a lot of that. … It means everything. It’s been an amazing journey.”
The full finishing order was as follows:
- Mystik Dan
- Sierra Leone
- Forever Young
- Catching Freedom
- T O Password
- Resilience
- Stronghold
- Honor Marie
- Endlessly
- Dornoch
- Track Phantom
- West Saratoga
- Domestic Product
- Epic Ride
- Fierceness
- Society Man
- Just Steel
- Grand Mo The First
- Catalytic
- Just a Touch