O’Neill Pleased With Derby Draw for Champion Nyquist

Triple CrownContent provided by BloodHorse

Undefeated Nyquist drew post 13 and was tabbed the 3-1 morning-line favorite for the May 7 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands during the May 4 post position draw at Churchill Downs.

The Uncle Mo colt and champion 2-year-old male of 2015 - owned by Reddam Racing, trained by Doug O'Neill, and to be ridden by regular jockey Mario Gutierrez - tops the 20-horse field. Exaggerator in post 11 is the 8-1 second choice and Creator in post 3, Gun Runner in post 5, and Mohaymen are all 10-1 co-third choices.

"Breaking from 13 is fine," O'Neill said. "He was No. 13 when he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland. The post didn't matter to us a ton, but we're happy with the outside, for sure."

Likely speed horses Danzing Candy and Outwork, who would be most impacted by a poor draw, will both be outside in post 20 and post 15, respectively.

Maiden Trojan Nation drew the unenviable position on the rail, which statistically isn't the worst position based on win percentage (9.3 percent), but hasn't seen a winner since Ferdinand in 1986. As a closer, Trojan Nation figures to be unhampered by the rail. Steve Asmussen, trainer of fellow closer and Arkansas Derby winner Creator, was also unfazed by the inside draw.

"I don't think post position matters much for him," Asmussen said. "It's probably better that he's down there and not out on the far outside, where he could possibly get completely disinterested, but he's pretty slow from the gate, so it'll be easy to get to the rail from there."

Gun Runner galloping on Wednesday. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Asmussen also trains Gun Runner, and was content with his draw as well.

"It doesn't appear that there's much pace near him, so hopefully he'll have a nice, clean break and a good 150-200 unimpeded yards for (jockey) Florent Geroux to decide how much of him he wants to use," Asmussen said.

For Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass winner Brody's Cause, drawing post 19 is less than ideal, but trainer Dale Romans said he was fine with his colt's location.

"It’s not a problem with our running style," Romans said. "You have a quarter-mile to the first turn. I would not have wanted to be down on the inside. We are going to be in the position we want to be in. The worse thing that could happen is we could be wide on the turn, but I think this field is going to spread out."

Post 17, which will be occupied by Bob Baffert-trained Mor Spirit Saturday, has never had a winner in 37 starts.

"The last time I had the 17 post was with Point Given and Gary Stevens, and here we are again," Baffert said. "I remember last year, I had the 18 with American Pharoah and there was a scratch and we were in 17, and I hoped for a scratch and we ended up with 16. ... It's funny, the way all the speed is on the outside, so it'll probably be two different races going on."

O'Neill was similarly interested in how the race would play out with the speed seemingly concentrated in the outside half of the gate.

"The most interesting thing is Danzing Candy in the 20 hole," O'Neill said. "Is he going to send hard and try to clear? If he does, that may affect his energy late. If he doesn't send hard, is that going to make us make the lead? ... I wouldn't mind (the lead) at all. He's shown versatility to win on the lead or off the pace, so we've got options."

Ron Mitchell and Frank Angst contributed to this story.

$2-million Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands
Saturday, Churchill Downs, Race 12, 6:34 p.m. ET
1 1/4 miles, dirt, 3-year-olds

PP

Horse

Jockey

Trainer

Owner(s)

Odds

1

Trojan Nation

Aaron Gryder

Patrick Gallagher

Julie Gilbert and Aaron Sones

50-1

2

Suddenbreakingnews

Luis Quinonez

Donnie Von Hemel

Samuel Henderson

20-1

3

Creator

Ricardo Santana Jr.

Steve Asmussen

WinStar Farm

10-1

4

Mo Tom

Corey Lanerie

Tom Amoss

G M B Racing

20-1

5

Gun Runner

Florent Geroux

Steve Asmussen

Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm

10-1

6

My Man Sam

Irad Ortiz Jr.

Chad Brown

Sheep Pond Partners, Newport Stables and Jay Bligh

20-1

7

Oscar Nominated

Julien Leparoux

Mike Maker

Ken and Sarah Ramsey

50-1

8

Lani

Yutaka Take

Mikio Matsunaga

Yoko Maeda

30-1

9

Destin

Javier Castellano

Todd Pletcher

Twin Creeks Racing Stables and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners

15-1

10

Whitmore

Victor Espinoza

Ron Moquett

Robert LaPenta, Harry Rosenblum and Southern Springs Stables

20-1

11

Exaggerator

Kent Desormeaux

Keith Desormeaux

Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, Rocker O Ranch, et al.

8-1

12

Tom’s Ready

Brian Hernandez Jr.

Dallas Stewart

G M B Racing

30-1

13

Nyquist

Mario Gutierrez

Doug O’Neill

Reddam Racing

3-1

14

Mohaymen

Junior Alvarado

Kiaran McLaughlin

Shadwell Stable

10-1

15

Outwork

John Velazquez

Todd Pletcher

Repole Stable

15-1

16

Shagaf

Joel Rosario

Chad Brown

Shadwell Stable

20-1

17

Mor Spirit

Gary Stevens

Bob Baffert

Michael Lund Petersen

12-1

18

Majesto

Emisael Jaramillo

Gustavo Delgado

Grupo 7C Racing Stable

30-1

19

Brody’s Cause

Luis Saez

Dale Romans

Albaugh Family Stable

12-1

20

Danzing Candy

Mike Smith

Clifford W. Sise Jr.

Halo Farms, Bashor, Jim and Dianne Bashor

15-1

AE

Laoban

Cornelio Velasquez

Eric Guillot

McCormick Racing and Southern Equine Stable

50-1

AE

Cherry Wine

Robby Albarado

Dale Romans

William Pacella and Frank L. Jones Jr.

 30-1

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