Burnham Square barrels from last to win the Toyota Blue Grass

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — It was a photo finish at the 101st running of the $1.25 million Blue Grass at Keeneland on Tuesday. From last to first, Burnham Square barreled through down the stretch to edge off East Avenue at the finish line.

It was the first time riding this horse for last year's Kentucky Derby winner jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

"I'd never been on this horse before. We watched all his replays and I talked to Ian quite a bit about him and going around the first turn he kinda surprised me because he wasn't really taking to the kick back and he was kinda climbing a bit, so I decided to get him outside," Hernandez said.

"And the impressive thing about him today was from the five-eighth pole home, he put in a really long sustained run and ran down a grade one winner, so you have to be proud of him. He showed he's going to be an exciting horse to move forward with."

"As Brian said, he wasn't running into the dirt. He went outside. I left it to Brian on whether he would go inside or outside and he decided to go out. And to make that long a run and still finish off and catch a good horse at the wire, very proud of him,"trainer Ian Wilkes said.

"Like I've always said with this horse, he doesn't get tired. The more distance the better. Distance is his dream house."

Burnham Square won 100 points towards the run for the roses and now sits at the top of the Derby leaderboard with 130 points, surpassing Sandman.

East Avenue placed second and 5/2 morning line favorite, Todd Pletcher's River Thames placed third.