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**StarDust Bum** · 05-21-2016, 12:47 PM

Nyquist ready for Preakness
May 20, 2016

BALTIMORE (AP) Let it rain again on the Preakness. Team Nyquist doesn't seem concerned.

A driving rainstorm didn't faze American Pharoah as he splashed his way to victory in the second leg of the Triple Crown last year, and it sure appears like Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will have to do the same thing in a bid to set up another Triple try in the Belmont Stakes.

The National Weather Service on Friday gave a forecast calling for a nearly 100 percent chance of rain beginning early Saturday and continuing throughout the day, with as much as three-quarters of an inch expected. Temperatures will be in the mid-50s with wind gusts up to 20 mph. Post time for the Preakness is 6:19 p.m.

''With a horse like Nyquist, I'm not overly concerned about the weather,'' trainer Doug O'Neill said on a bright, sunny Friday morning. ''As far as rain or shine, we're not going to change anything shoeing-wise He's going to wear the same shoes he's got on. We'd just love to have a beautiful day.''

Rain could be a good thing for several of his top rivals, though, especially Derby runner-up Exaggerator, or long shot Cherry Wine. Both have run well in the mud, with Exaggerator taking the Santa Anita Derby on a sloppy track and Cherry Wine breaking his maiden by 9 1/2 lengths under similar conditions.

''I'll be one of the few people doing a rain dance,'' Cherry Wine's trainer Dale Romans said.

Nyquist, with an 8-0 record, won the Florida Derby over a surface listed as good even though the track had been drenched by a rainstorm before the race.

The fleet son of Uncle Mo is a win away from a shot at the Triple Crown, which would give racing back-to-back Triples for the second time. American Pharoah became the first to sweep the Derby, Preakness and Belmont since Affirmed in 1978, a year after Seattle Slew won it.

But first, Nyquist has to defeat 10 rivals at 1 3-16ths miles over Pimlico Race Course, a track he's become familiar with over the past two weeks. The 3-5 favorite leaves from the No. 3 post with Mario Gutierrez aboard.

O'Neill has been through this before, along with owner J. Paul Reddam and Gutierrez. In 2012, they won the Derby and Preakness with I'll Have Another, who was retired the day before the Belmont with an injury.

Asked what would be an ideal trip for Nyquist, O'Neill didn't hesitate: ''We break great, have the lead and go really easy around there. Mario knows Nyquist so well. He has so much speed away from the gate, ideally, he gets good position wherever that is and he runs a big race.''

Exaggerator, the 3-1 second choice, may be the most accomplished mudder in the field. In addition to his Santa Anita Derby win, he won once and finished second over muddy tracks.

''He's run on every track that's been put before him and that may prove to be an advantage,'' Exaggerator's trainer Keith Desormeaux said. ''But I am not sure wishing for one track over another. I'd prefer to have my picture taken in the sun.''

Lani, the first Japan-based horse in the Preakness, is the only other Derby starter in the field. The flighty gray colt arrived at Pimlico on Thursday. He's run three times on ''off-tracks'' in Japan, with a win, a second- and a fifth-place.

''It would not be great, but everybody has to run on it,'' Lani's trainer Mikio Matsunaga said of a possible sloppy track.

Among the eight new shooters, Abiding Star, Awesome Speed, Cherry Wine, Fellowship and Uncle Lino have shown they can handle an off-track.

Horses usually are fitted with shoes made of lightweight aluminum. When a track surface becomes muddy or sloppy, trainers could opt for mud caulks - small cleats inserted on the back end of the shoe for better traction. Shoe changes are determined the day of the race.

Unlike the Derby, the Preakness is full of front-runners, horses who like to run on the lead. Nyquist is one of them, along with Abiding Star, Awesome Speed, Collected, Laoban and Uncle Lino. If the pace is too fast, it gives closers a chance to make a winning run at the end.

Which is what Romans is hoping for when Cherry Wine breaks from the inside No. 1 post.

''We'll fall back and chase the speed and come running at the end,'' he said, adding jokingly (but sort of seriously), ''I challenge Doug to be on the lead by the 5/8ths pole. Don't listen to what anyone else says. Just go for it. Make them go fast.''

It might not matter.

''The thing about our horse is we don't know for real how good he is,'' Reddam said. ''Other than his maiden race, which doesn't really count at five furlongs, he has not been in an all-out drive. So we think there's a lot more in the tank.''

**StarDust Bum** · 05-21-2016, 12:48 PM

Everyone loves Nyquist, even his rivals
May 20, 2016

BALTIMORE (AP) Everyone loves Nyquist.

From Kentucky Derby winning trainers, to Preakness rivals, to millions of racing fans wondering whether another Triple Crown awaits, it's tough to find anything wrong with a horse who has been nothing but perfect.

Eight races, eight victories. Kentucky Derby. Florida Derby. Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Del Mar Futurity. And a 2-year-old championship.

''I haven't seen any reason to doubt that he can go ahead and do the Triple Crown,'' says Barclay Tagg, who trained 2003 Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide. ''He hasn't done anything wrong, and he's had a lot of tries. He's taken on all comers on both sides of the continent. How can you say he won't go all the way?''

A year after American Pharoah ended a 37-year drought by sweeping the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, along comes Nyquist, the 3-5 favorite for Saturday's second leg of the Triple Crown. Trained by Doug O'Neill, Nyquist drew the No. 3 post and will be ridden by Mario Gutierrez. Four years ago, the two teamed up along with owner J. Paul Reddam and won the Derby and Preakness with I'll Have Another.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez had a close-up view of Nyquist in the Derby. He was aboard Outwork, who ran alongside the 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo for much of the race before dropping back and finishing 14th.

''I know where he was and what he did, and how he did it,'' Velazquez said. ''It was very impressive. He is fast enough that he is going to be forwardly placed anyway. He (Mario) was very patient with him. He waited until the quarter-pole to give him his head, and then it was impressive. He did it very nicely.''

This time, Velazquez will try to upset Nyquist aboard Stradavari, a promising colt who won his last two races by nearly 26 lengths combined but is making his stakes debut.

Bob Baffert knows a great horse, and the Hall of Fame trainer of American Pharoah believes Nyquist just might fit the bill.

''He's a really good horse. When you win eight in a row coming out of California, it's like California Chrome,'' said Baffert, who sends out 10-1 shot Collected in the Preakness. ''Everybody was lukewarm. Then he won the Derby. Then it's, `oh, he's for real.'''

Baffert doesn't expect his colt to give him what would be a record-tying seventh Preakness win.

''We're here to be competitive,'' he said. ''I can't really try to talk myself into it that I'm going to blow Nyquist away and the rest of the field. He's going to be tough to beat.''

Shug McGaughey, who trained 2013 Derby winner Orb, had his doubts about Nyquist before the Derby.

''I thought he was the best going into the race, but I had my wonders whether he could go a mile-and-a-quarter,'' he said of the Derby distance. ''He answered that. They got him in perfect position behind a scalding pace and that jock knew he wasn't going to stop.''

Nyquist has won on a rain-soaked track in Florida, even though he drifted out in the stretch of the 1 1/8-mile race. He's won at 1 1/4 miles. Every time a question pops up about his ability, or breeding, the speedy colt answers with a resounding victory.

''He's fast, really fast and he stays out of trouble,'' Baffert said. ''He has a winning attitude. Horses like that are tough. It's pass me to win. I'd probably be surprised if he didn't win (the Preakness).''

Team Nyquist is confident, but only because the horse is showing them he's feeling great and ready for another winning effort. O'Neill says Nyquist is the best horse he's ever had, and that includes I'll Have Another.

''Nyquist is just a tad more special, the way he carries himself, the way he acts around the barn,'' he said. ''Just his whole presence is very unique and we're all feeding off that. ... It's a really good vibe and we realize this could be the last time we have a horse like this, so we're enjoying every moment of it.''

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux will be aboard Derby runner-up Exaggerator, the 3-1 second choice but a four-time loser to Nyquist. He thought he had him in the San Vicente, but Nyquist came out on top.

''When I tackled him in the San Vicente coming to him twice the speed that he was going, he just jumped into the forward speed with me,'' Desormeaux said. ''I was like, whoa, who is this guy? So, he's just very talented.''

Former jockey Richard Migliore believes Nyquist's style resembles 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed.

''He's workmanlike,'' Migliore said. ''I see how he does things and he always finds more. Every time there's a challenge he meets it and that's what Affirmed did. Affirmed wasn't that classy, he just did what needed to be done all the time. He looks like a dream horse for a jockey.''

While Tagg thinks winning the Preakness will be easier than the Derby for Nyquist, he brought up a test that has yet to develop - a head-to-head stretch duel.

''He hasn't been in a dogfight,'' Tagg said.

**StarDust Bum** · 05-21-2016, 12:50 PM

Exaggerator ready again for Nyquist
May 19, 2016

BALTIMORE (AP) We're not making this up: Exaggerator is 0 for 4 against Nyquist. His trainer, Keith Desormeaux, is 0 for 8 against the undefeated Kentucky Derby winner.

So why is the Derby runner-up trying again in Saturday's Preakness?

''We doubled-teamed him with Exaggerator and Swipe,'' Desormeaux said at Thursday's traditional alibi breakfast at Pimlico Race Course. ''Maybe those two horses have dealt him enough blows so he can just back up a step and we can reach that goal we are trying to get to.''

Swipe, a promising Derby prospect as a 2-year-old, has finished second to Nyquist four times, including the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Exaggerator has narrowed his losing margin against Nyquist in each race, finishing 1 1/4 lengths back in the Derby.

A determined Desormeaux keeps trying to convince himself that Exaggerator is ready to run down Nyquist, the unbeaten 3-5 morning-line favorite in an 11-horse field. He's says his powerfully built colt needed only one day to recover from the Derby, has been ''happy energetic'' since and can handle any track surface.

''Along with his pedigree (a son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin), his No. 1 physical attribute is his ability to recover,'' he said. Exaggerator also won the Santa Anita Derby over a sloppy track - a distinct possibility for the 1 3-16-mile Preakness.

''We're not wishing for one track over another,'' Desormeaux said, ''I prefer to have my picture taken in the sun.''

Exaggerator is the 3-1 second choice, with lightly raced Stradavari - one of eight challengers who did not run in the Derby - next at 8-1.

All the chatter this week around Pimlico's stakes barn has been about Nyquist, and can he really follow up American Pharoah's Triple Crown with another one? Nyquist trainer Doug O'Neill, who won the 2012 Derby and Preakness with I'll Have Another, knows Exaggerator is the rival to fear in the Preakness.

''What they have done with Exaggerator has been brilliant,'' O'Neill said. ''He won the Santa Anita Derby. He won the Delta Downs Jackpot. He won the Saratoga Special. He's run second a few times but he's also won some big races, and he ran a winning race in the Kentucky Derby. He just had a lot to do; you know, we kind of got a head start on him.''

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, Keith's younger brother, figures if he can get a clean trip with Exaggerator and stay a bit closer to the pace, there's a good chance to turn the table on his nemesis. He says in the three times he's been aboard Exaggerator in losses to Nyquist, his horse did not have clear sailing - in the BC Juvenile, the San Vicente and the Derby.

On the far turn at the Derby, Exaggerator was gaining ground but Kent Desormeaux said he was slowed down by other horses and lost some momentum.

''It denied me the opportunity to challenge Nyquist. I could never catch up to him,'' the jockey said. ''I know I would've caught up to him around the eighth pole, but I daresay I'm not sure Nyquist would've let me by.''

Look for a slight change in tactics. With a smaller field than the Derby and a shorter distance to run, expect Exaggerator, breaking from the No. 5 post, to stay closer than usual to the leaders, which likely would include Nyquist.

''It's usually even more of a speed bias racetrack due to the sharp turns and shorter stretch,'' Kent Desormeaux said. ''You seldom see horses making up tons of ground at Old Hilltop there in Maryland. So for several reasons, I'll probably adjust my situation in an attempt to win with Exaggerator.''

Two times, Keith Desormeaux thought he had Nyquist nailed. The first was with Swipe in the Front Runner Stakes at Santa Anita last September.

''Swipe came through on the inside and was running as though he had him measured,'' he recalled. ''I could tell Kent still had horse left. And Nyquist dug down the last eighth and held us at bay.''

The second was with Exaggerator in the San Vicente in the 3-year-old debuts for both in February.

''I was even more confident I had him beat. I knew Exaggerator was a little better than Swipe,'' Desormeaux said. When the seven-furlong race started, Nyquist set a quick pace, with Exaggerator not far behind in third. ''I said `this race is in the bag' because Exaggerator was sitting right off of him just waiting to pounce. ''When you set a pace like that, they usually come back to you. We hooked him. We got to his throat latch and Nyquist re-broke. That horse is a good horse. Period.''

Asked if he thinks Exaggerator and Nyquist are aware of each other since they raced so many times, Keith Desormeaux replied: ''If he knows anything about Nyquist, it's the rear view.''

**StarDust Bum** · 05-21-2016, 12:51 PM

Here is the complete field with the most up-to-date odds for the Preakness

141ST PREAKNESS STAKES POST DRAW ODDS

1. Cherry Wine 21-1

2. Uncle Lino 40-1

3. Nyquist 4-5

4. Awesome Speed 45-1

5. Exaggerator 9-5

6. Lani 25-1

7. Collected 13-1

8. Laoban 60-1

9. Abiding Star 30-1

10. Fellowship 50-1

11. Stradivari 7-1

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2016 Preakness Stakes: Complete field, Picks !

2016 Preakness Stakes: Complete field, Picks !

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