Mystik Dan won the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby by a nose on Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

As the race swung down the stretch, a stampede of horses bumped and banged across the track. But Mystik Dan got loose by hugging the rail, running for the wire at 18-1.

Sierra Leone and Forever Young broke away from the pack as if glued together and made a run at the leader. But they didn’t quite get there.

Sierra Leone, who went off as the second favorite at 9-2, was the runner-up, while Forever Young, at 7-1 and bidding to become the first Japanese horse to win the Kentucky Derby, came in the narrowest of third-place runners.

Saturday’s finish was the 10th win by a nose in Kentucky Derby history and the first since Grindstone’s victory over Cavonnier in 1996.

Mystik Dan paid $39.22 to win, $16.32 to place and $10 to show.

Sierra Leone paid $6.54 to place and $4.64 to show.

Forever Young paid $5.58 to show.

The $2 exacta paid $258.56.

The $1 trifecta paid $1,113.84.

The $1 superfecta, with fourth-place finisher Catching Freedom joining the top three, paid $8,254.

Mystic Dan became this year’s candidate to become the 14th Triple Crown winner in the history of U.S. thoroughbred racing. The next race in the Triple Crown is the Preakness Stakes on May 18 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

Mystik Dan had won $641,360 entering Saturday’s race, which paid $3.1 million to the winner.

Mystik Dan became a Kentucky Derby contender by winning the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Feb. 3 by 8 lengths over Just Steel. The colt’s final derby prep didn’t go as well as Mystik Dan finished 4.5 lengths behind Just Steel, which ran 2 lengths behind race winner Muth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on March 30.

Mystik Dan’s victory was the first in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

Florida Derby winner Fierceness was the betting favorite at 7-2 and ran with the leaders until the top of the stretch, when the colt faded to a 15th-place finish.

The order of finish for the 150th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, was:

1. Mystik Dan

2. Sierra Leone

3. Forever Young

4. Catching Freedom

5. T O Password

6. Resilience

7. Stronghold

8. Honor Marie

9. Endlessly

10. Dornoch

11. Track Phantom

12. West Saratoga

13. Domestic Product

14. Epic Ride

15. Fierceness

16. Society Man

17. Just Steel

18. Grand Mo The First

19. Catalytic

20. Just A Touch

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.