He was the fourth straight favorite to win the race, generally thought of as hard to pick because of the 20-horse field and the thin resumes of many contenders.
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The Kentucky Derby 2016 results are in, and Nyquist has taken taken home the top prize.
A total of 167,227 people attended the Derby, the second-highest attendance ever for the race. He stalked the speedy Danzing Candy and Louisiana Derby victor Gun Runner down the backstretch.
Nyquist is owned by J. Paul Reddam, trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by Mario Gutierrez. He owned I’ll Have Another, a horse that won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, but an injury knocked him out before the Belmont Stakes.
Among Nyquist’s Kentucky Derby rivals, the chief competitors likely moving on for a Preakness rematch are second-place finisher Exaggerator and ninth-place finisher Lani. And it’s not even the first – or the second, or the third – Red Wings player who has served as namesake for one of Reddam’s horses.
Steve Asmussen, trainer of Gun Runner, who was third, and Creator, who was 13th, said he would wait until later in the week before making definitive plans for the Preakness.
“Having been close to a possible Triple Crown, we realize it doesn’t happen until it happens”, Reddam said. Next year the crowds will return, perhaps with more U of L alumni among them.
A horse must win all three races to achieve the Triple Crown.
It was the same before the Florida Derby when Nyquist was shipped to Gulfstream to race against then undefeated Mohaymen. Whether it was Smarty Jones in 2004, Big Brown in 2008 or California Chrome just two years ago, the physical strain of winning these three races over five weeks impacts each horse differently.
Nyquist just may be on the same Triple Crown path as American Pharoah past year.
Despite Nyquist’s unbeaten record, which included a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile past year, the colt’s connections heard plenty of doubters, especially those who questioned whether he’d handle the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance. “I can’t respect that horse enough”.
“When we had I’ll Have Another, Doug was training the heck out of him, all the way up until a couple of days before the Belmont”, Reddam said.
NOTES: Saturday’s card at Churchill Downs included two additional Grade I stakes races, including Taris winning the Humana Distaff, and Divisidero crossing the finish line first in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic…. Camelot Kitten took the American Turf Stakes and longshot Sharp Azteca was victorious in the Pat Day Mile with 13-1 odds.
Victor Espinoza, who had won the Derby the previous two Kentucky Derby races, finished 19th atop Whitmore. He will seek to make in nine a row in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness on May 21. “Because if anybody comes late, I know I’ll have something to respond to that”‘. “You just knew he was going to figure out a way to pull it out at the end and he did”.
Keith Desormeaux, the trainer of Exaggerator, said immediately after the Derby that his horse would come back in the Preakness.
“If he sees something coming he keeps going as fast as he needs to go”.
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Dennis O’Neill, the trainer’s brother, found Nyquist for Reddam at a purchase price of $400,000. It doesn’t seem like we have gotten to the bottom of him.
