Awake At Midnyte works ahead of Saturday's Santa Ynez

Awake At Midnyte, a daughter of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist trained by Doug O’Neill, worked five furlongs Sunday morning in 1:01.80 for Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs.

The chestnut filly bred by Forty Oaks and trained by O’Neill for principal client Reddam Racing LLC was ridden by Mario Gutierrez, who has been aboard in her only two starts, a maiden neck victory in her debut race last Oct. 31 at Santa Anita, and a second-place finish by a nose at 7-1 Nov. 27 in the Jimmy Durante Stakes (G3) on Del Mar’s turf course going a mile.

“She’s a nice filly, very honest,” said O’Neill. “She looked good in the breeze and if she’s OK tomorrow morning, we’ll be ready to rock and roll.”

O’Neill, understandably, has fond memories of Nyquist not only as a race horse but as a stallion. The son of Uncle Mo stands at Darley in Lexington, Ky., for $55,000 this year.

“Sprint, route, turf, dirt, the Nyquists do a lot of different things, and Awake At Midnyte has the pedigree (out of the Union Rags dam Midnight Union) to be good and we’re optimistic we can keep going up the ladder with her,” O’Neill said.