How did Mage end up winning the Kentucky Derby on May 6?

Maybe with a little luck made by a teenager in Montgomery.

Mage did not race as a 2-year-old, which is usually a handicap for Kentucky Derby hopefuls, and the 149th Run for the Roses was only the fourth race for the colt.

Mage went off at 15-1 to win. Bettors liked seven horses’ chances better than Mage’s — and that doesn’t include Forte, the race favorite who was pulled from the Kentucky Derby the morning of the race because of a bruised front right foot.

But Mage overtook Two Phil’s in the stretch at Churchill Downs and beat hard-charging Angel of Empire to the wire to become this year’s Triple Crown hopeful.

Mage is scheduled to try to secure the second step toward that thoroughbred-racing rarity in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

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Josephine Foshee will be rooting hard for Mage after making a connection with the colt before the Kentucky Derby.

The Montgomery 15-year-old has an Etsy business where she transforms basic Breyer model horses into look-a-likes of real horses.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve been painting these model horses by the brand Breyer, and I sell them on Etsy,” Foshee said. “They’re people’s horses, so it’s a commission kind of thing.

“Somebody reached out to me about a month ago and said they had a horse that was running in the Kentucky Derby. It was a partial owner of the horse, and she wanted the smallest size that I offer as a good-luck charm to have in her pocket.”

Mage has a complex ownership. Gustavo Delgado Jr., the son of Mage’s trainer, owns 25 percent as do blood stock agent Ramiro Restrepo and Sterling Racing. The other 25 percent belongs to Commonwealth, which sells shares from its portion. The Associated Press reported Mage has 382 stockholders through Commonweath.

“I guess she just wanted a custom model of her horse made for the Kentucky Derby as a good-luck charm (that she could take to Churchill Downs) and just looked it up on Etsy, because Etsy is a place where people make custom items,” Foshee said. “Normally it takes me three to four weeks for the big ones, and two to three weeks for the medium and small ones. I got that one done in a week.”

Because Mage won, Foshee will be creating another model of the colt for the owner.

“I told her if he wins, I would make her one, like a bigger size, for free,” Foshee said.

Foshee’s connection to horses goes beyond her artistic skills, and like Mage, she’s a champion, too.

Riding for her Saint James school team last month, Foshee won the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association varsity intermediate 2-foot competition at the Interscholastic Equestrian Association’s Hunt Seat and Dressage National Finals at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina.

“I’m not sure about the Breyer, but I’m hoping to ride in college on a team, hopefully D-1,” Foshee said about her future with horses, “and then maybe do something professionally with it afterward.”

Post time for the 148th Preakness Stakes is 5:50 p.m. CDT Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. NBC will televise the race.

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