O’Neill scheduled only two starts for Nyquist before the Derby, and one of them was at 7 furlongs.
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Nyquist paid $6.60, $4.80, $3.60 for a $2 bet in becoming the eighth unbeaten horse ever to triumph in the Run for the Roses.
“He’ll walk the next couple days and then get back to the track jogging like we’ve done his whole career”, Sisterson said.
As he did with I’ll Have Another in 2012, trainer Doug O’Neill opted to have Nyquist reside in the auxiliary stakes barn, instead of Stall 40 in the Stakes Barn, historically reserved for the Kentucky Derby victor. That will be followed by the Belmont Stakes.
It was 100 minutes after Nyquist had crossed the Kentucky Derby finish line alone when the lights went out in the Derby museum Saturday night, Doug O’Neill put his right arm around wife, Linette, and everybody in the crowd looked up at the 360-degree screen to watch The Greatest Race. “You can see it in his eye on a daily basis, and he’s such a professional”.
“If he was a human athlete, we’d celebrate him as a superstar”, O’Neill said.
The Triple Crown had not become obsolete; it did not need to be tinkered with just to make a sweep of the spring classics a more reasonable and accessible goal for today’s thoroughbreds. In his Derby prep, the colt was beaten twice by Mohaymen and then hit the wire 4 1/4 lengths behind Nyquist in the Florida Derby.
Nyquist isn’t the first Kentucky Derby hero O’Neill has purchased, having picked up I’ll Have Another from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s April sale in 2011, parting with $35,000 for the son of Flower Alley, who is now standing at Big Red Farm in Japan. His time for the 11⁄4 mile was 2:01.31, the fastest Derby in 13 years and almost two seconds faster than the 2:03.02 that American Pharoah ran a year ago on his way to the Triple Crown.
Owner J. Paul Reddam, assistant trainer Leandro Mora, racing manager Steve Rothblum and jockey Mario Gutierrez hung out on the backstretch on a cool, rainy Sunday morning.
“We won’t change anything”.
“He’s a nice horse, and I think he’ll probably sit back a little bit and try to come with a run”.
“This horse is really something”.
“He’ll be part of six horses we send up there, including the filly”, he said. Gun Runner actually took the lead for about 20 steps with a quarter mile to run, but Nyquist blew his doors off and romped down the stretch to remain undefeated.
“He has been able to win by five lengths, he has been able to win by a nose-that’s how I’ve had so much confidence in him”, Gutierrez said. “He started pricking his ears back and forth at the top of the stretch”. Exaggerator placed second and Gun Runner ended third.
Exaggerator was closing at the finish, but Nyquist never seemed threatened.
Exaggerator, who charged to within 1¼ lengths of Nyquist at Churchill Downs, could take another shot unless his connections decide to wait until the Belmont.
Exaggerator is the early 8-1 second choice, trained by Keith Desormeaux and ridden by his younger brother Kent. “I can’t respect that horse enough”.
“I was very optimistic coming over here (from the barns)”.
Nyquist is from the first crop of last year’s leading American freshman sire Uncle Mo, who stands alongside 2015’s Triple Crown victor American Pharoah at Coolmore’s American base Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
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“There’s no way you can feel nervous”, O’Neill said. “You just knew he was going to figure out a way to pull it out at the end, and he did”.
