Nyquist begins his three-year-old campaign in style

The Champ is back and perhaps better than ever. Reddam Racing’s undefeated son of Uncle Mo, Nyquist began his three-year-old campaign the same way he ended his two-year-old season, with a graded stakes win. The Doug O’Neill conditioned colt captured his sixth in a row to start his career and he did it well on Monday afternoon at “The Great Race Place.” He will likely head to Gulfstream Park from here for the $1 million Florida Derby.

While the San Vicente Stakes is not an official Kentucky Derby prep race based on The Road to Kentucky Derby points system, two of Southern California’s most highly regarded three-year-old colts started their 2016 campaigns in the seven furlong President’s Day event at Santa Anita Park. In the end it was 2-5-favorite and Eclipse Award winner Nyquist that hit the wire first.

With the rail draw, jockey Mario Gutierrez took no chances and sent Nyquist from the gate to battle for the early lead with the Wesley Ward trained Sheikh of Sheikhs. The two front runners battled through early fractions of 22.50 and 44.49 before the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion winner put away the Discreetly Mine colt and embraced a showdown with second choice Exaggerator.

Exaggerator had been training well and had two graded stakes wins under his belt as a two-year-old, but he was no match in the lane despite a perfect stalking trip. Nyquist turned away the son of Curlin and kept his undefeated record intact winning by a measured length and a half in the end. After the race, rider of the runner-up Kent Desormeaux declared, “You’d have to break the track record to win that race, so that’s telling for both horses.”

It was two and a half lengths back to third and fellow O’Neill trainee Denman’s Call. The Northern Afleet gelding put in a solid effort in his first try against winners.  The winning time was 1:20.71, the third fastest in the race’s history. Georgie Boy has the stakes record of 1:20.01 in 2008.

The connections of Nyquist were extremely pleased after the San Vicente. “Everything went great, and for the race to go the way it did, I’m pumped and so proud of the whole team,” said trainer Doug O’Neill.  “Exaggerator is a nice horse, and for him to hold him off the way he did showed you how talented he is. I really was impressed with the gallop out. He galloped out great.”

When owner J. Paul Reddam was asked about the lack of respect the undefeated colt appears to be getting considering his incredible resume he stated, “They can give him respect or not, but that’s not going to affect his performance on the racetrack. We try not to take any of that personally."

Exaggerator’s trainer J. Keith Desormeaux was extremely impressed with the two-year-old champion’s effort. He declared, “Goodness gracious. Anybody not a believer in Nyquist now, that was an awesome race, to set those kinds of fractions and still finish in close to track record time for a three-year-old in February. Wow! Hat’s off to Nyquist.”

The Kentucky Derby is still almost three months away, but the things are starting to heat up across the country. Once again Southern California has a fair share of the top contenders with Nyquist and Mor Spirit leading the way and Exaggerator, Smokey’s Image, and Danzing Candy amongst those looking to solidify their spot in Louisville on the first Saturday of May in the coming weeks.  It should be a great few months of racing.