Don’t blame Brian Hernandez Jr. if he doesn’t want 2024 to end.

It’s been a life-changing year for the 39-year-old Lafayette native.

In May, Hernandez became the eighth jockey in history to win the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in the same year. His victories on Thorpedo Anna in the Oaks and Mystik Dan in the Derby came via his longtime partnership with trainer Kenny McPeek and helped him to a career high in earnings of more than $19 million.

“It’s changed just about every aspect of my life,” Hernandez said of himself and McPeek, who became the first trainer since 1952 to win the Oaks-Derby double. “It’s elevated our careers and shows that with the opportunity and the right horses, we can get it done.”

Hernandez and McPeek will be among the featured attractions at the 2024-2025 race meet at the Fair Grounds Race Course, which opens its 153rd racing season on Friday at the Gentilly oval.

Hernandez will be competing in his fourth consecutive Fair Grounds meet. This will be the second consecutive season that McPeek has made New Orleans the homebase for his talented stable. McPeek, who made Gulfstream Park his winter base for years, will have an increased number of stalls this year.

The Fair Grounds meet is a family affair for Hernandez. His father, Brian gallops horses in the mornings for trainer Sam David and works as a valet for him and younger brother Colby in the afternoons.

“It’s always fun to come back to the Fair Grounds for the winter,” Hernandez said. “Everybody loves coming to New Orleans, and it’s always a very competitive meet.”

The 2024-2025 meet should be no different. The 76-day meet will feature $8.875 million in combined stakes purses and will once again be highlighted by the $1 million Grade II Louisiana Derby on March 22, the crown jewel of the Fair Grounds’ successful Road to the Kentucky Derby and Road to the Kentucky Oaks programs for soon-to-be 3-year-old colts and fillies.

As usual, Fair Grounds mainstays Brad Cox, Steve Asmussen, Tom Amoss, Al Stall Jr., Joe Sharp, Dallas Stewart and Bret Calhoun will headline a deep and talented field of trainers, along with last year’s leading conditioner, Shane Wilson.

Trainers Brendan Walsh and Cherie DeVaux, who have enjoyed strong 2024 seasons on the Kentucky circuit, will have an increased number of stalls on the backside this year, as will trainers Phil Bauer, Whit Beckman, Lindsay Schultz, Rob Atras, Chris Block, and Tanner Tracy.

Brittany Russell, Will Walden, Ignacio Correas, Linda Rice, and Michael Tomlinson are among the trainers who will bring smaller strings to the Fair Grounds this year after training elsewhere last winter.

The always-competitive jockey colony will have a handful of new faces, including Jose Ortiz who will bring his tack to New Orleans for the first time after competing in New York for most of his career. Ortiz won the Preakness Stakes aboard Seize the Grey this year and won the 2017 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey.

Axel Concepcion and Jeiron Barbosa are among the other new riders at the meet. Concepcion arrives from the Maryland circuit after winning the 2023 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, Barbosa was a finalist for the apprentice Eclipse Award in 2022.

The Fair Grounds’ 63-race stakes program will feature $325,000 in purse increases, including boosts to the $250,000 Grade III Lecomte on Jan. 18 and $500,000 Grade II Risen Star on Feb. 15.

The 2024 Kentucky Derby was yet again dominated by the talent traveling through Fair Grounds’ “Road to the Derby” prep races, as all of the top six finishers, minus the two who shipped in from Japan, either raced or trained at Fair Grounds ahead of their excellence on the first Saturday in May.

“Ever since (racing secretary) Scott Jones increased the distance in the Louisiana Derby, we’ve been getting some really good horses (to the Fair Grounds),” Hernandez said of the race’s distance switch form 1 1/8 mile to 1 3/16ths in 2020. “It’s one of the toughest meets in the country for winter racing.”