Mystik Dan has won the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby in a heart-pounding three-horse photo finish.

The bay colt trained by Kenny McPeek and ridden by Brian Hernandez, who went off at 18-1 odds, held off Sierra Leone and Forever Young by a nose in the $5m race at Churchill Downs.

The crowd of more than 150,000 spectators waited nearly 10 minutes before the result was declared official. Catching Freedom placed fourth.

The 38-year-old Hernandez said he thought the race was won on the far turn of the one-and-a-quarter-mile course.

“My horse was so game being up on the inside,” Hernandez said. “I came through a really tight spot. We kind of climbed up on top of the rail a little bit. When he shot through that spot and he was able to cut the corner and I asked him to go for it, he shot off and I thought, ‘Oh man, we’ve got a big chance to win the Kentucky Derby.’

“To see you number flash up to win the Derby like this, I don’t think it’s going to sink in for a while.”

Hernandez and McPeek had teamed to win the Kentucky Oaks for fillies on Friday with Thorpedo Anna. That made McPeek the first trainer since 1952, and only the fourth ever, to win the Oaks and the Derby in the same year.

More to follow.