Nyquist persuaded the masses to that line of thinking with his 1 ¼-length win in Lousiville. And in nine career races, he has now lost four times to Nyquist.
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Like Nyquist, Exaggerator was doing fine after a late surge propelled him to a runner-up finish behind Nyquist in Saturday’s thrilling finish.
According to oddsshark.com, Nyquist has been established as the whopping 3/5 favourite to win the second jewel, the Preakness Stakes, which will be raced in Baltimore on May 21. The Southern California-based team was behind 2012 Derby and Preakness victor I’ll Have Another.
Although it is unlikely, It is too early in the piece to speculate whether Nyquist will be able to stay the 2,400 metres of the Belmont Stakes on June 11 but he has displayed so far that he can deal with nearly any situation. “There was no way you could be nervous with him – you just feel like you’re going into the gym with Kobe Bryant!” The race was seen by the second largest crowd ever at Churchill Downs, around 167,000. He doesn’t carry the buzz of American Pharoah, who won the Triple Crown a year ago after an earlier loss. “Every day we wake up and he teaches us something new”.
So the favorite Nyquist wins the Run for the Roses, as trainer Doug O’Neill celebrates in the stands.
But, whatever the pedigree of his on-ice predecessor, Nyquist (the horse, to be clear) has been dominant on the track in his own right.
In a more serious tone, Reddam said Exaggerator “ran great” in Saturday’s race. “He’s just first class”. He rarely does more than he needs to and nothing dazzling.
Yet Nyquist has a supporter in Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer who guided American Pharoah. Nyquist won by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
“He does it workmanlike, but he does it fast”.
“There is no way you could be nervous”.
But Nyquist isn’t the first horse to emerge from the Derby looking unbeatable – and majority subsequently saw something go wrong by the end of the Triple Crown.
Nyquist enjoyed a flawless trip over the Churchill Downs dirt.
As expected, Danzing Candy didn’t care he was breaking from the 20th post position and hurried out and moved to the rail under jockey Mike Smith so the one-trick pony could be on the lead. “He’s never exhausted. It doesn’t seem like we’ve gotten to the bottom of him, so that’s very exciting”. Gutierrez didn’t panic, even as Gun Runner edged by on the inside and Danzing Candy stretched his lead to four lengths.
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But Gun Runner was only in front briefly before Nyquist showed a strong finishing kick.
