Nyquist Wraps up Serious Derby Preparations

While he took slightly different approaches with the two horses, trainer Doug O'Neill is as pleased with Nyquist going into the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) as he was with I'll Have Another, who won the 2012 edition of the Louisville classic.

Reddam Racing's Nyquist completed his final timed work for the Derby April 29 before the first race at Keeneland, where he breezed a mile in 1:41 under regular jockey Mario Gutierrez. The undefeated champion 2-year-old male was credited with splits of :27, :51, and 1:15 through six furlongs.

Since winning the XpressBet.com Florida Derby (gr. I) to improve to seven-for-seven five weeks before the Derby, Nyquist has breezed three times on the Keeneland main track. Before Friday's mile work, the son of Uncle Mo   completed five furlongs in 1:02 3/5 April 15 and 1:01 4/5 April 23.

Before his 2012 Derby win, Reddam Racing's I'll Have Another won the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) April 7, then worked twice on the Hollywood Park synthetic surface main track in the four weeks before the Derby. The son of Flower Alley completed six furlongs in 1:13 3/5 April 19 before going 1:13 4/5 April 27.

"Nyquist has been a lot more controlled," O'Neill said, comparing his Derby preparations to I'll Have Another's works. "I'll Have Another was one that we got the brunt of our fitness from open gallops on a daily basis. This guy has told us he would like to have a good open gallop once a week and the rest of the time he can just do maintenance stuff.

"I like that. It gives his body time to recover from these good stamina-type of workouts. What we've seen today is what we've seen prior to his other races. It's worked then, so I'm optimistic it will work in eight days."

During Friday's work, Nyquist started a couple lengths behind grade I-winning workmate Ralis going one mile before several thousand fans who had arrived early at Keeneland to watch the move. Nyquist looked very fluid through the turn and backstretch, quickly moving to even terms with Ralis. In the stretch, Nyquist let it out a notch and quickly pulled away from Ralis, even while he took several looks at the crowd.

"He does play around a little bit," O'Neill said. "He's a playboy. He knows he's good and he likes to flaunt it a little bit I guess."

O'Neill said Friday's breeze, which he said was several seconds faster than his typical mile move, gives the entire team confidence going into next week. 

"He looked great out there. The time he went today without much effort was wowing," O'Neill said. The plan now is to ship to Louisville April 30. "(Next week) he'll visit the gate, meet the gate crew, (and) maybe walk through the paddock once. A little jog, a little gallop—not a lot going on next week for him."

Nyquist arrived at Keeneland the day after the Florida Derby. O'Neill said preparing for the Derby in Lexington has been a good move.

"To have gone from Southern California, to South Florida, back to Southern California just seemed like too much," O'Neill said, noting that the elevated white blood cell count Nyquist encountered when he arrived at Keeneland could have been exacerbated by additional travel. "It's allowed us to be as best prepared as we could be for the Kentucky Derby. Then the track here is great. The main track is in great shape and if it rains, you can go to the training track, which is always in great shape. We just haven't missed a beat, really."