As long as the colt remains sound, he will race in the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore.
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Less than 12 hours after winning the Derby, O’Neill said the colt was “doing great” Sunday morning.
“His run was awesome”, Reddam said of Nyquist.
O’Neill, as is his wont, deferred to the team in general and Nyquist specifically for this win.
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.
Dazzling Gem captured his first two career starts at Oaklawn this year before finishing third behind Gun Runner in the Louisiana Derby (G2) at Fair Grounds and fourth behind Creator in the Arkansas Derby (G1). “He’s a star. I don’t know about the Triple Crown, but we’ll have a great year”. The five-week timeline from the Florida Derby to the Kentucky Derby had appeal, and it certainly became a factor when Nyquist had a slight case of shipping fever after first arriving at Keeneland following the Florida Derby.
Zayat, the owner of American Pharoah, did not have a horse in the Derby and was home in New Jersey.
Despite his best effort Gun Runner’s stay on the lead was brief as Nyquist quickly opened daylight on him and controlled the race to the wire for a length and a quarter victory over the late charge of Exaggerator.
Nyquist is 8-for-8 and a possibility to become the second undefeated Triple Crown victor along with Seattle Slew.
“You could see he was going to go by those two”, Reddam said of Danzing Candy and Gun Runner. “Again, the beauty with Nyquist mentally is that whatever we put in front of him, he handles it. His whole career, we’ve kept him on the same training routine, and we’re not going to change it now”.
“I thought this horse was the bet of the day”, he said. I have a 100 per cent record on Nyquist. The object of this year’s speculation will be Nyquist, the impressive victor of Saturday’s 142nd Kentucky Derby.
Mike joined Ed and Steve to talk about the Kentucky Derby and what to expect at the Preakness.
“You look at that resume and think, why argue?” he said. He’s the first horse since Big Brown in 2008 to leave the 1 1/4-mile race unbeaten.
Bred by Summerhill Farm, Nyquist is the first foal produced by the winning Forestry mare Seeking Gabrielle, who is a half-sister to Grade 3 victor Seeking The Sky, who is herself the dam of the Grade 1-winning Sahara Sky.
In fact, most of the Preakness field might end up being horses who skipped the Derby, either by choice, or because they were excluded on points at entry time.
Given special permission to stand apart from his counterparts as they paraded through the paddock, jockey Yutaka Take was soon in the saddle and on the track with arguably the Derby’s most temperamental horse.
“He’s still undefeated”, said Kiaran McLaughlin, who trained fourth-place Mohaymen. “And they are into the stretch, and it’s Nyquist….” Last year, there were 170,513 fans. “I’m a little more mature and a lot more confident now”.
Online sports book Bovada.LV has made Nyquist 5-2 to complete back-to-back Triple Crowns, following American Pharoah in 2015.
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Gutierrez – whom broadcasters praised as “being as cool as ice” during the race – called Nyquist “an wonderful horse” after crossing the finish line.
