Kentucky Derby 2016 Notes: Nyquist Gets Feel of Churchill Surface

Reddam Racing’s likely Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (GI) favorite Nyquist got his first feel for Churchill Downs Sunday morning at 8:30 when he jogged once around the big oval under exercise rider Jonny Garcia. He appeared to handle it just the way he’s handled everything else in his brief career – with a winning style.

Trainer Doug O’Neill’s champion-2-year-old-turned-blossoming-sophomore-star went trackside with a pony steered by assistant trainer Jack Sisterson, passing through the six-furlong gap and on about his business on a sloppy and sealed strip as easy as can be. He finished up in short order and headed right back to Barn 41, which will be his home through at least next Sunday.

“He jogged today and he’ll jog tomorrow,” said O’Neill, who besides Nyquist has nine other Thoroughbreds and a pony ensconced on the Churchill backstretch. The trainer also has brought Reddam Racing’s Land Over Sea for Friday’s Longines Kentucky Oaks (GI) and has six additional stakes picked out this coming week for six of his other runners.

O’Neill said owner Paul Reddam would be in from California on Wednesday.

“He wants to be here for the Derby draw Wednesday night,” he said.

OTHER KENTUCKY DERBY NOTES
 

BRODY’S CAUSE/CHERRY WINE – Trainer Dale Romans reported that his two Kentucky Derby hopefuls, Brody’s Cause and Cherry Wine, exited their five-furlong breezes Saturday morning in good order. Both horses walked the shedrow Sunday morning and are scheduled to jog on the main track Monday.

CREATOR/GUN RUNNER – WinStar Farm's Creator and Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farms’ Gun Runner galloped a mile and half Sunday morning after the renovation break for trainer Steve Asmussen.

Exercise rider Carlos Rosas was on Gun Runner, and exercise rider Abel Flores was on Creator.

As is his routine before a Saturday race, Asmussen will work the colts Monday. "An easy half-mile,'' he said. “Same thing they've done the week of (a race) all year.”

DANZING CANDY – Trainer Cliff Sise Jr. reported that Danzing Candy exited his five-furlong work on Saturday at San Luis Rey Downs training center in good order and walked the shedrow Sunday morning.

Halo Farms, Jim and Dianne Bashor’s Danzing Candy is scheduled to arrive at Churchill Downs on Monday afternoon after catching an early morning flight out of Southern California. Sise, who will travel commercially, also is expected to arrive in Louisville on Monday afternoon.

Danzing Candy will get acquainted with the Churchill surface Tuesday, Sise reported.

DAZZLING GEM – Trainer Brad Cox reported that Dazzling Gem came out of his five-furlong workout of 1:00.40 in good order and that he just walked Sunday morning. The Misremembered colt is 24th on the list of potential Kentucky Derby starters and would need several defections to make the field.

DESTIN/OUTWORK – There wasn’t much shaking on the schedule for trainer Todd Pletcher’s Derby duo of Destin and Outwork Sunday morning, other than an amble around the shedrow on Barn 40. Both colts had worked Friday morning, then jogged Saturday and – in the conditioner’s usual pattern – this was their “off” day.

Destin had accomplished his five-furlong drill in 1:01.20, while Outwork had gone in 1:01 two days ago. Both appeared to be taking their steps toward Derby 142 in smooth and steady fashion.

“Touch wood,” Pletcher said. “I don’t think either of them will have any issues with the crowd come Saturday. They seem to have handled it all well so far and I’m expecting the same ahead. We’ll paddock them throughout the week and give them every chance to be comfortable.”

DISCREETNESS – Xpress Thoroughbreds’ Discreetness, 26th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, walked the shedrow at trainer Jinks Fires’ barn.

Should Discreetness make the Derby field, he would be ridden by 55-year-old Jon Court.

Court started the Spring Meet in rousing fashion Saturday night, winning the first two races on the program. The two victories boosted Court’s Churchill Downs’ win total to 498 and his career total to 3,965.

EXAGGERATOR – It was a very quiet Sunday morning at the Keith Desormeaux barn, as almost all of them are. The trainer had worked his Derby colt Exaggerator on Saturday (1:02.60) and walking was in order on a pretty morning in Louisville.

“He came out of his work fine,” the 49-year-old conditioner said, “and he’ll walk today. He’s used to that.”

The native of Louisiana Cajun country has established a Sunday routine at his stable that has been in place since he became the boss and hung out his own training shingle. Barring something extraordinary, it is always a day off, or a day of rest, for all concerned.

“When I first started doing this on my own,” he said, “I said why does this have to be a seven-day-a-week job? I understand that it is a seven-day-a-week responsibility, that these animals have to be fed and cared for every day and, of course, we do that. But that doesn’t mean that they – or we – have to work seven days.

“My horses are given every Sunday off. So is my help. I like to go to church on Sunday and there’s time for that. Some of my help does, too. It is a routine now at the stable and it works well for all of us.

“We go by this creed:  If you can’t get ‘em fit in six days, you probably shouldn’t be doing this.”

FELLOWSHIP – Jack of Better Farm’s Fellowship, No. 21 on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, was an early bird Sunday at Churchill Downs. The colt jogged on the main track in the first set at 5:45 a.m. with exercise rider Brian O’Leary aboard.

“It was just an easy day of jogging,” Norm Casse, son of trainer Mark Casse, said. “He will back in the 8:30 set tomorrow and will gallop.”

When the younger Casse was asked if there was a “Plan B” for Fellowship if he didn’t get into the Derby field, he responded: “I don’t think we really discussed that yet. I think he is training so well, maybe the Preakness is on the table. We will enter [Wednesday] and wait to see how it goes.”

LANI – Koji Maeda’s Lani paid a visit to the starting gate near the conclusion of his 35 minutes on the track Sunday morning.

With exercise rider Eishu Maruuchi aboard, Lani came on the track shortly after 8:30 during the training time reserved for Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks contenders. Lani made four circuits of the track, a combined walk and jog for the first lap, jogging the second, galloping a mile and a half and then walking to the starting gate for his schooling session.

“He did pretty well at the gate. It was another good day,” said Keita Tanaka, agent for Maeda. “It is routine when we go to a new track to do gate practice. He will probably go one more time before the Derby.”

Lani’s extended time on the track is nothing new for him.

“Back home in Japan, he usually will walk for 30 minutes before going to the track,” Tanaka said. “We can’t do that here because it is so confined (in the area around the stakes barn).”

Trainer Mikio Matsunaga is scheduled to arrive in Louisville on Monday and jockey Yutaka Take on Friday.

Take had flown in from Japan to work Lani on Wednesday and returned to Japan the next day.

Take got the week off to a good start early Sunday when he won the Emperor’s Prize (GI) at Kyoto on Kitesan Black.                      

MAJESTO – Grupo 7C Racing Stable’s Majesto jogged in the mile chute and then galloped a mile and a quarter under exercise rider J.J. Delgado before the morning renovation break.

Runner-up in the Florida Derby (GI) in his most recent start, Majesto still is in need of a rider for the Derby.

“I wanted to get (Javier) Castellano,” trainer Gustavo Delgado said of the rider who was aboard Majesto in his past two starts but who is committed to ride Destin for Todd Pletcher in the Derby.

“But I understand,” Delgado said with a shrug. “Javier has won a hundred races for Todd and six for me.”

MOHAYMEN – Shadwell Stable’s Mohaymen had his second walk day following a half-mile work on Friday.

“Everything is good here,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “He will go back to the track tomorrow.”

Junior Alvarado, who has ridden Mohaymen in all six of his starts with five victories, has the Derby mount.

MOR SPIRIT – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who had flown back to California following Mor Spirit's work last Tuesday, arrived back in Louisville late Saturday night and was on hand to watch his charge gallop 1 ½ miles under regular exercise rider George Alvarez during the special 8:30 a.m. training time. The Santa Anita Derby (GI) runner-up is expected to have his final workout Monday morning.

It has been 20 years since Baffert saddled his first Kentucky Derby runner and nearly pulled off the upset when Cavonnier finished second by a slim margin. Since that time he has won four Derbys, including last year with the heavily favored American Pharoah, who went on to become the sport's first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Baffert is feeling a lot less pressure this time around.

“We're just the opening act this year,” quipped Baffert, as he visited with several members of the media Sunday morning.

MO TOM – G M B Racing's Mo Tom, with exercise rider Mario Garcia aboard, galloped about a mile-and-a-quarter Sunday after the renovation break. The colt also schooled at the starting gate.

Mo Tom, trained by Tom Amoss, will be racing for the first time since finishing fourth, with a troubled trip, in the Louisiana Derby (GII).

Amoss said he has no concerns about the six-week spacing between Mo Tom's final prep race and the Kentucky Derby. Since 1929, two Kentucky Derby winners – Animal Kingdom in 2011 and Needles in 1956 – were racing for the first time in six weeks.

"The placement of these prep races has a lot to do with when you're going to run next, and any trainer worth his salt can keep a horse fit, even for this extra distance for eight to 10 weeks if he has to,'' Amoss said. "So it's a non-factor.''

Also, Amoss is confident that Derby Day hoopla, which has bothered many horses over the years, will be a non-factor for Mo Tom.

"He has a very laid-back personality, which is great,'' he said. "I don't think he's going to be a horse the crowd is going to bother in any way, shape or form. We're going to have 150,000 out here. I'm good with that.''

MY MAN SAM/SHAGAF – The Chad Brown-trained duo of Sheep Pond Partners, Newport Stables and Jay W. Bligh’s My Man Sam and Shadwell Stable’s Shagaf each jogged one mile at 8:30 a.m., their first day back to the track after timed workouts Friday.

Even though there are several more accomplished horses in the field – and Brown even acknowledges this upcoming quote is a Derby cliché – the trainer insists he “wouldn’t trade these two for anyone else in the field” in light of how they’re coming up to the race.

My Man Sam finished an impressive second in the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) breaking from the outside post 14 and having to circle the field eight-wide into the stretch.

“He’s a hard tryer, a brave horse, a strong-willed little horse,” Brown said. “He’s not afraid of anything. You put him in any situation and he’s very willing.”

His previous efforts and his disposition gives Brown reason to believe that jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will have the valuable option of leading My Man Sam wherever he finds daylight, whether it’s between horses or up the rail.

“Just being around him, he’ll chase you out of his space or if he sees another horse walking around him in the shedrow he might challenge him. He doesn’t care if the other horse is bigger than him.”

The talent and tenacity displayed by My Man Sam emerged as a bit of a surprise to Brown, who was frustrated by the colt’s lack of focus when he first came to the barn as a 2-year-old.

“I thought he’d be a nice horse but I never thought he’d be a Derby-caliber horse,” Brown said. “He got a late start for mental reasons. He was very unfocused in the summer. Originally he was sent to me as a turf prospect. I breezed him on the turf at Saratoga and I didn’t like the horse on the turf. So we just stuck to the dirt and gave him some time.

“It took him a long time to get his gate card and stuff like that. He just wasn’t all there. But he put it all together late in the fall and had some good workouts that led us to believe this horse was going to be OK.

“We weren’t thinking a mile-and-a-quarter dirt horse, by Trappe Shot and kind of small. But when we got him around two turns he really exploded and opened our eyes up to what we had. Sometimes that happens with horses. They all develop at different stages.”

The emergence of My Man Sam as a serious 3-year-old stands in stark contrast to his stablemate, Shagaf, who inspired Derby dreams from his debut, a six-length win at Aqueduct.

“To get an 88 Beyer and run a ‘9’ Ragozin going a mile on the dirt the first time you ever run, in November of your 2-year-old year, I don’t know if any horse in America did that,” Brown said. “It’s a big number first time out in the fall. Since then he hasn’t really moved forward, numbers-wise, but he’s had some excuses along the way and I’m willing to give him a pass because the horse looks really good right now.”

Chief among those excuses was a muddy track in New York for the Wood Memorial (GI), which resulted in a lackluster fifth as the favorite.

Shagaf uncharacteristically dropped back almost immediately and made only a minor move into contention without ever seriously threatening the winner, Outwork.

“He caught a muddy track he just didn’t like and he didn’t get away from the gate,” Brown said. “When he did get a little momentum going he had to stop. Nothing really worked out for him that day and we’re taking the approach of just drawing a line through that race.”

The effort was especially disappointing because Brown had seen improvement in Shagaf after his winning effort in the Gotham (GIII), a trend that has continued since arriving in Louisville.

“I’m not sure this horse liked Florida,” he said. “He just never was quite the same down there as he was in New York. After the Gotham we left him in New York and the horse really started to pick up his weight again and he just started to train more consistently. He was really coming into the Wood in fine shape before it rained. Since the Wood there’s been more improvement, more consistency; he’s gaining weight, getting stronger. The horse breezes by himself now; he was always one that needed company. He’s had two fabulous works here at Churchill, by himself, effortlessly.

“You can debate his numbers and how fast he runs but, to me, the horse is really peaking right now.”

OSCAR NOMINATED – Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Oscar Nominated, winner of the Spiral Stakes (GIII) at Turfway Park in April, jogged 1 1/2 miles shortly after 6 a.m. at the Trackside Training Center.

Trainer Mike Maker said the Kitten’s Joy colt came out of his timed work Friday in good order and that he was pleased with how well his charge had taken to the Churchill Downs surface in advance of his first start on dirt.

“If he doesn’t win I don’t think the surface will be an excuse, just the competition,” he said.

Oscar Nominated made his first six starts on turf, including a win in the $50,000 Black Gold Stakes at Fair Grounds, before taking the Spiral at 23-1 over Turfway’s synthetic Polytrack.

Maker and the Ramseys have teamed up with two previous Derby starters by Kitten’s Joy – Dean’s Kitten (14th in 2010) and Derby Kitten (13th in 2011). Another Ramsey starter by their prize stallion, Charming Kitten (ninth in 2013), was trained by Todd Pletcher.

SUDDENBREAKINGNEWS – Samuel F. Henderson's Suddenbreakingnews had an easy first day back to the track following his five-furlong workout Friday. Under exercise rider Ramiro Gorostieta, the Mineshaft gelding jogged a mile and visited the paddock after the renovation break.

“He looks good,” trainer Donnie Von Hemel said. “He came bouncing off the racetrack. He probably thought he needed to do more.”

Prior to starting his morning exercise, the Southwest Stakes (GIII) winner stood patiently for several minutes and appeared nice and calm as he watched the other horses on the track. Von Hemel thinks Suddenbreakingnews' mind will be one of his advantages as the crowds and excitement build each day leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

“He's a cool customer,” Von Hemel said. “That will definitely help him out. He's a gelding, so he doesn't have amore on his mind.”

TOM’S READY – G M B Racing's Tom's Ready, exercise rider Emerson Chavez aboard, jogged a mile Sunday before the renovation break for trainer Dallas Stewart. The colt also schooled in the paddock.

"It was a good situation where we worked him Friday, didn't have to train in the mud yesterday,'' Stewart said. "All he had to do was jog in the mud today, go to the paddock, relax a little bit.''

Tom's Ready, who finished second in the Louisiana Derby (GII), will be racing Saturday for the first time in six weeks. "I don't see a problem with it,'' Stewart said of the spacing between races. “We're really able to stick some solid, hard training in, and he handled that. We haven't backed up at all.''

Stewart, who will be participating in his fifth Kentucky Derby, finished second twice with longshots – Golden Soul in 2013 and Commanding Curve in 2014. Tom's Ready, who was a 30-1 shot in the Louisiana Derby, will be a longshot Saturday, but that doesn't matter to Stewart.

"We're going for the win.'' he said. "We're not here to participate. We're going for the money. This is the situation. I'm trying to win it, and if he's good enough, he'll win it, because he's ready. So forget all about this 'Let's just be in the damn race.' That's not what I'm all about.

"It's a horse race, and you need to be ready for it. That's why the works have been stiff. It's just been steady and strong the whole six weeks.''

TROJAN NATION – The Street Cry colt Trojan Nation, who will be known as “The Maiden” when he comes to Kentucky this week to run in Derby 142, galloped a mile and one half for trainer Paddy Gallagher at his Santa Anita headquarters Sunday morning.

In six career starts thus far, the bay has gotten close several times but has yet to have a picture taken, thus the moniker. While more than a few non-winners have tried their luck over the years at the mile and a quarter of the race usually filled with high achievers, only three who never have rung the bell beforehand have finished first – and that most recent time it happened was 83 years ago.

But that will not hinder the good, old college try with the colt from owners Julie Gilbert and Aaron Sones, trainer Gallagher and rider Aaron Gryder come Saturday with the chance to become rich and famous all in one fell two-minute swoop.

Trojan Nation will be airlifted from Los Angeles to Louisville Monday with exercise rider and right-hand man Andy Durnin following in transit. Gallagher has a flight lined up for Tuesday.

WHITMORE – When asked to describe Whitmore Sunday morning, trainer Ron Moquett had just one word “happy.” The Arkansas Derby (GI) third-place finisher looked even happier after he jogged one mile and galloped one mile during the special 8:30 a.m. training time under Laura Moquett, wife of the trainer.

Moquett will be making his second consecutive Kentucky Derby start after saddling Far Right to a 15th-place finish last year. When asked how things are different this time around, Moquett said, “It's easier this time. I know what to expect more. Last year was like going to a new place and having to figure out where everything is, like where's the bathroom.”

Source: Churchill Downs