Hernandez may have to choose between two prime Kentucky Derby mounts

Brian Hernandez Jr. launched his career as a professional jockey in 2003, and last year, finishing 12th aboard Tom’s Ready, he got his first mount in the Kentucky Derby. For 14 years, Hernandez would have jumped at the chance to ride any horse in the Derby, but this year, he is on the verge of having to choose between two of North America’s leading 3-year-olds.

On Saturday in the $1 million Louisiana Derby, Hernandez rides Girvin, who figures to be favored after winning the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 25 in his most recent race. A week later, Hernandez will get a leg up on McCraken in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. McCraken sits at No. 1 this week in Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch, while Girvin is at No. 11 with a solid chance of moving up.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Hernandez, 31, said Wednesday. “It’s a rarity to be on two of the best 3-year-olds in the country at this time of year. It’s something you work for, and it’s very satisfying.”

Hernandez has been based all meet at Fair Grounds, which is where Girvin, trained by Joe Sharp, has mainly spent his winter. Hernandez, however, never has worked Girvin, whose main work rider has been former jockey Rosie Napravnik.

McCraken won the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in his lone start this year and, until recently moving to Kentucky, was based in Florida with trainer Ian Wilkes. Yet Hernandez has ridden McCraken in nearly all of his morning work, including his drill at Keeneland this week.

“I ride for Ian quite a bit, and he looks to get a good schedule, keep horses going in the right direction,” Hernandez said.

A similar situation came about four winters ago, when Hernandez was regularly flying from Fair Grounds to Florida for Wilkes to work Fort Larned, aboard whom he won the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Fort Larned era really cemented Hernandez’s relationship with Wilkes, and each summer he works closely to help develop Wilkes’s young stock.

“Ian will kind of get some good legs under them, then start working them in July and August,” Hernandez said. “I normally work just about all the 2-year-olds at Churchill, and he kind of picks and chooses which ones I ride from there.”

Hernandez rode McCraken, who is undefeated after four starts, in his first racetrack work last summer; he was impressed from the beginning.

“Ian had been really, really high on him ever since he looked at him as a baby,” said Hernandez. “When we first got him in, he’d always outwork everything. His athletic ability is phenomenal, but it’s his mind that really sets him apart.”

The minor injury that cost McCraken an intended start in the Tampa Bay Derby felt like part of the fading past, Hernandez said, in McCraken’s six-furlong workout in 1:13.40 on Monday at Keeneland.

“He broke off six lengths behind another horse and already was trying to get to him at the three-furlong pole. He finished very strong and galloped out a mile,” Hernandez said. “Ian said this morning he’s still full of himself. We don’t know how good he is yet. Everything we keep throwing at him, he can take it.”

Meanwhile, Hernandez stood on the fence last Saturday and watched Girvin and Napravnik go five furlongs in 1:01 in a final tune-up for the Louisiana Derby.

“The only time I’ve been on him this winter is when he raced,” Hernandez said. “I watched his work the other day with Joe; I’ve watched him quite a few times. He looks great, too. For Rosie to come out and say he’s the best 3-year-old she’s ever been on, that’s a pretty strong statement. He’s another horse, like McCraken, everything they’ve asked him to do, he’s done it. Even the grass race he lost, on a surface he didn’t care for, that was a good race. Since the Risen Star, he’s come back and trained even better and seems like he’s improving with every race.”

And if Girvin keeps improving, he will force a relatively tough choice on the jockey with one career Derby mount.

“We’ll just have to see what happens when the time comes to make that decision,” Hernandez said.