James Hetfield finds a new Sandman at the Kentucky Derby

The song “Enter Sandman” from Metallica‘s 1991 album served as some inspiration for the name of Sandman, a three-year-old colt. James Hetfield, the band’s frontman, has heard about it and recently went to see the horse named after the popular Metallica song before it competed in the Kentucky Derby. A quick montage of Hetfield visiting Sandman was posted on the official America’s Best Racing Instagram account on May 2nd. As he poses with him, Hetfield also flashes the “devil horns,” and the encounter appears to be quite charming overall. The exchanges between the two naturally won over the majority of Metallica fans. Some others couldn’t resist making light jabs at Metallica‘s history of legal troubles.

According to Blabbermouth, Sandman, one of 20 horses anticipated to compete in this year’s Kentucky Derby at Louisville’s Churchill Downs Racetrack, was bred in Kentucky and trained by Mark Casse. Additionally, they mention that Metallica has previously given shirts to the colt’s barn crew. Jonathan Green, one of the horse’s owners, reportedly picked the moniker because he is “a big fan of Hall-of-Fame Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who famously used ‘Enter Sandman’ when he entered games,” according to The Sporting News. Green actually “hope[s] that the horse can close races like Rivera closed games.” According to Bleacher Nation and Yahoo! Sports, Sandman finished seventh out of 19 and lost to the horses Burnham Square, Owen Almighty, Final Gambit, Baeza, Journalism, and Sovereignty (who won first).