Hetfield Visits Kentucky Derby Horse Named After Metallica Song

Have you heard about Sandman, the three-year-old colt whose name was partially inspired by “Enter Sandman” (from 1991’s Metallica)? Well, frontman James Hetfield has, and he recently visited the horse named after the huge Metallica hit prior to it competing in yesterday’s Kentucky Derby (and it was so adorable).

Details of Their Meeting + Sandman

On May 2, the official America’s Best Racing Instagram account shared a brief collage of Hetfield visiting Sandman (set to “Enter Sandman,” of course). Hetfield flashes the “devil horns” as he poses with him, too, and it generally looks like a very endearing meeting.

Naturally, most Metallica fans were charmed by the pair’s interactions, with one Instagram user replying to America’s Best Racing’s post: “Well now I love this horse even more! And a grey to win!”

Similarly, someone else wrote: “Awesome to see Poppa Het was able to meet Sandman. Go baby go.”

Of course, a few other people couldn’t help themselves from taking mild shots at Metallica’s litigious past. Specifically, one person joked, “Probably there to sue the horse for using the name,” whereas another follower replied: “Wonder if [Hetfield] knows that horse downloaded songs in Napster in the past.”

Per Blabbermouth, Sandman was “bred in Kentucky and trained by Mark Casse” as “one of 20 horses expected to enter this year’s Kentucky Derby . . . at Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville.” They also note that Metallica previously “donated shirts for the colt’s barn crew.”

According to The Sporting News, one of the horse’s owners – Jonathan Green – chose the name because he’s “a big fan of Hall-of-Fame Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who famously used ‘Enter Sandman’ when he entered games." In fact, Green “hope[s] that the horse can close races like Rivera closed games.”

So, how did Sandman do at the Kentucky Derby? Per Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Nation, Sandman came in 7th place (out of 19) and was beaten by horses named Burnham Square, Owen Almighty, Final Gambit, Baeza, Journalism and Sovereignty (who took 1st place).

Don’t feel too bad, though, Sandman. We still think you’re a winner!

You can see various clips and pictures from their meeting (alongside other glimpses of Sandman) below.

More About “Enter Sandman” + Metallica

The opener of – and lead single from – Metallica’s self-titled fifth studio record (often referred to as The Black Album), “Enter Sandman” was written by Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett. Obviously, it’s about the mysteries of sleep (specifically, nightmares), and initially, Hetfield thought it “wasn’t such a great song.”

Like the LP as a whole, it controversially marked a change into catchier and more commercially appealing territory for the band (to the point that it’s arguably Metallica’s first pop song). Nevertheless, it’s easily the group’s biggest tune and one of the biggest metal songs of all time.

In fact, “Enter Sandman” surpassed one billion streams on Spotify in December of 2022, and it’s been covered by dozens are artists. (Perhaps most notably, Ghost did a version of it for 2021’s tribute album, The Metallica Blacklist.)

As for what Metallica have been up to lately, they kicked off their 2025 tour on April 19 in Syracuse, New York. It’s part of their ongoing tour in support for their newest record –2023’s 72 Seasons – and it included songs from that LP (“Lux Æterna,” “Screaming Suicide”) and prior classics (“Nothing Else Matters,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “One,” etc”). The foursome recently booked a show in a country they’ve never played before, too!

Speaking of “One,” it inspired Ryan Coogler’s awesome new film – Sinners – and Metallica just announced an extensive re-release of 1996’s Load that features live recordings, rough mixes, unreleased demos and more. It comes out on June 13, and you can preorder it here.