Kentucky Derby 2025: Metallica joins the Sandman fan club

Sandman, winner of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and headed to Kentucky Derby 2025, has an admirer in the form of Metallica.

The heavy-metal band was drawn to the grey colt because of his name. Metallica's 1991 song "Enter Sandman" reached no. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.

"We had someone reach out to us that is involved with Metallica and they saw the horse and wanted to connect because of his name," Tom Murphy, ownership advisor for co-owner West Point Thoroughbreds, told Horse Racing Nation on Monday.

"They wanted to send us some gear to deck out the Casse barn staff and sent us some T-shirts for them to wear in the lead-up to the Derby."

Trained by Mark Casse, Sandman is second on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard after his Arkansas Derby. He also picked up points with a third-place finish in the Rebel (G2) and a second in the Southwest (G3).

The Tapit colt had his first work at Churchill Downs last week, breezing four furlongs in 49.6 seconds.