It is the second win in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Doug O’Neil and jockey Mario Guitierrez who paired to win the 2012 edition with I’ll Have Another. And in nine career races, he has now lost four times to Nyquist. Gun Runner just held on for third, another 3 ¼ lengths back. In fact, both horses managed to finish the race without the jockeys, so enjoy this fiasco guilt free. In horse racing parlance, “Much the best” is the term chart callers will use to describe Nyquist’s 1 1/4-length victory in the Run for the Roses. There was a brief, strong storm about 90 minutes before the Derby, but it had no impact on the surface on a day where temperatures had risen into the low-80s.
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Uncle Lino won the California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos on April 30 after finishing third behind Exaggerator in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9.
Nyquist #13, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, crosses the finish line to win the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 07, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky.
American Pharoah managed the feat previous year – for the first time since 1978. “With a horse this good, we wanted to treat it with respect and the reverence that we owe the horse”.
To run hard every step of the way and still power home to victory was indicative of just how superior Nyquist is to the rest of this three-year-old crop. If he’s successful there, he will go to Belmont for a June 11 race that again would elevate the sport from niche status to true worldwide intrigue.
As long as the colt remains sound, he will race in the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore.
Reddam named Nyquist for Gustav Nyquist, a forward on the Detroit Red Wings, a National Hockey League team Reddam has been a fan of since growing up just across the river from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario.
The son of Uncle Mo answered the single nagging question that many handicappers had posed: Can he win at classic distances? The 3-year-old colt became the eighth unbeaten victor in the race’s 142-year history. “Today, Nyquist was going to go as fast as he needed to go”.
Nyquist received a 103 Beyer figure for his win. “I got to know the babies, the two-year-olds”. That resulted in a horse that was fresh and ready for a top performance Saturday.
“He will not allow any other horse pass him”, he said. He’s talented. I liked where he was.
“But this year all of us are a lot more mature”.
I have to admit I was a bit anxious when I saw how close Nyquist was to a pace that saw the frontrunner go 22 2/5 for the quarter and a suicidal 45 3/5 for the half.
But those who believed in him – none more than trainer Doug O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam – felt all the doubters missed the point.
During his unbeaten eight-race career, Nyquist has won in different ways, sometimes running away, sometimes not.
Could we have another Triple Crown horse on our hands here? “We see it in his eyes on a daily business”. “We were feeding off the trainer”.
At the post-race press conference, O’Neill took the opportunity to thank the Reddams for the opportunity to train Nyquist, along with his barn crew for keeping things rolling smoothly.
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Brody’s Cause started well, but as the pack shaped into the first stretch, he got squeezed off and fell to the back of the field.
