LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It took nearly a year, but Brian Hernandez Jr. said it’s finally sunk in that he won the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby 24 hours apart last year. When Hernandez rode Thorpedo Anna to an emphatic victory in the Oaks on May 3 and Mystik Dan to a nose score in the Derby the following day – both for trainer Kenny McPeek – he became the eighth jockey to pull off the feat in the 150-year history of both races. He was the first to do it since Calvin Borel won both in 2009. “It seems like this week it’s finally really set in that we pulled off what we did last year,” Hernandez said Wednesday at Churchill Downs where he was signing posters of Thorpedo Anna in trainer Kenny McPeek’s barn. “With racetrack lifestyle it’s just go, go, go. After Derby, we go two weeks later in the Preakness and you keep rolling and never got a chance to soak it all in. This year, coming back, it’s started to soak in.” Hernandez will have a chance to pull off the double again. He rides Take Charge Milady in Friday’s $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks and Burnham Square in Saturday’s $5 million Kentucky Derby. Take Charge Milady is trained by McPeek, who said she seems to have recovered from a foot abscess that was concerning earlier in the week. She is coming off a late-running second to La Cara in the Grade 1 Ashland. Hernandez believes the added sixteenth of a mile and the presence of more speed in the Oaks could help her chances. “The short stretch at Keeneland makes it tougher to make up ground,” Hernandez said. “A mile and an eighth here on Friday should benefit her.” In the Derby, Hernandez rides Burnham Square. The only time Hernandez rode Burnham Square was in the Grade 1 Blue Grass on April 8, when he rallied him from last to beat East Avenue by a nose. Hernandez said what impressed him about Burnham Square was the long, sustained run he put in that day. “East Avenue is a Grade 1 winner, and he was able to run him down,” Hernandez said. “He’s the type of horse, if you look at his numbers and races, each race he’s gotten better and better.” Burnham Square is trained by Ian Wilkes for owner/breeder Janis Whitham. It was Whitham and Wilkes who put Hernandez on his first Grade 1 winner, Fort Larned, who took the 2012 Whitney and Breeders’ Cup Classic. Hernandez remembers having a conversation with Wilkes about Burnham Square last fall. Burnham Square ran second in his debut behind Iron Sharpens Iron, a horse Hernandez rode to victory in the six-furlong maiden race at Keeneland. Hernandez remembers Wilkes telling him to watch Burnham Square the next time he ran. On Nov. 30, in a 1 1/16-mile maiden at Churchill, Hernandez was aboard Generative for McPeek, and he was in the back of the pack alongside Burnham Square, who was ridden by Francisco Arrieta. While Generative finished 10th, Burnham Square rallied to finish third, beaten three-quarters of a length. “We were walking back through the tunnel and Ian told me ‘Hey look, I told you that horse was going to run good,’ ” Hernandez recalled. “I said ‘What are you talking about run good? We were last and next to last.’ He said, ‘No, he ended up third. I went back and watched the replay and he made a huge run. How’d he end up third from that position?” Hernandez, who rode at Fair Grounds during the winter, followed the progress of Burnham Square, who won a maiden race and the Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park with Edgard Zayas aboard. After Burnham Square finished fourth in the Fountain of Youth, Wilkes called Frank Bernis, Hernandez’s agent, seeking a two-race commitment – the Blue Grass and the Derby. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Since none of the 3-year-olds Hernandez was riding for McPeek were seemingly on their way to the Derby, “we were more than happy to jump at the opportunity, especially for the Whithams,” Hernandez said. Hernandez will be attempting to become the seventh jockey to win the Kentucky Derby in back-to-back years, and the first since Victor Espinoza in 2014-15 on California Chrome and American Pharoah. (John Velazquez won the 2020 Derby on Authentic and finished first in 2021 on Medina Spirit, who was later disqualified.) “You dream about it and you hope for it, if you end up pulling it off it’s a magical feat to do it two years in a row,” Hernandez said. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.