With a $1m bonus on the line, the undefeated two-year-old champion Nyquist shipped across country to run in the Grade I Florida Derby to take on the also-unbeaten Mohaymen on his home turf at Gulfstream Park, instead of staying home to run in the Santa Anita Derby next weekend.
But when Nyquist handily defeated Mohaymen with a 3 1/4-length victory over a track rated “good” after rain earlier in the day, what had appeared at first to be a risky move looked like a no-brainer.
In an unusual showdown of undefeated horses vying for Kentucky Derby favoritism, Nyquist took the lead early, breaking from post No4 under jockey Mario Gutierrez in the 10-horse field while Mohaymen in post nine was forced wide heading into the first turn and up the backstretch.
Maintaining a short lead, Nyquist, who went off as the second betting choice at even money, was challenged and briefly headed by longshot Sawyers Mickey before repelling a bid from favored Mohaymen heading into the stretch. Heading to the wire, Nyquist extended his lead over runner-up Majesto, while a late-closing Fellowship closed from last to finish third. Mohaymen was fourth.
In addition to the $600,000 winner’s share of the Florida Derby’s $1m purse, Nyquist earned an additional $1m put up by Fasig-Tipton, the Thoroughbred auction company, for having been sold as a two-year-old at the company’s Gulfstream Park sale last year. Reddam paid $400,000 for the horse, whose earnings now total $3,333,600.
“I had reservations a month or so ago,” said O’Neill of the decision to run in Florida instead of in California. “Mohaymen in his own backyard, do we really want to do something like that? But we all very quickly got on the same page, and I think we just had a very lucky trip.”
“You only get the bonus if you won,” said Reddam, “so we wouldn’t have come unless we thought we had certainly a decent chance.”
Said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin of Mohaymen, who has been training in Florida and won two Derby prep races at Gulfstream earlier this year, “He was pretty wide throughout, but the track is wet and we wanted to stay out in the clear. We were awfully wide throughout and with the track, you never know. We’ll re-group.”
Trained by Doug O’Neill, Nyquist brings together the jockey, owner, and trainer that won the 2012 Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands and the Preakness with I’ll Have Another, who was forced to scratch with an injury the day before a Triple Crown attempt in the Belmont.
“It’s good for the team that we’ve been here before,” said Reddam.
With Nyquist now the favorite for this year’s Kentucky Derby, Reddam quipped about his previous Derby winner, “He was well-named, wasn’t he?”
The winner of the Sentient Jets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Lexington, Kentucky’s Keeneland Racecourse last October, Nyquist is now seven-for-seven lifetime. He will ship to Keeneland on 3 April to train up to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on 7 May.
“He’s got the mindset of a champion,” said O’Neill, then added, perhaps with I’ll Have Another in mind, “It’s now up to the racing gods to keep him injury-free.”
