Nyquist

A $400,000 2-year-old in training purchase, Nyquist debuted in June of his 2-year-old year as a game winner by a head at Santa Anita. His connections stepped him up to graded stakes company for his next start, the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar, where he responded with a dominant 5 1/4-length victory. A month later, he easily won the Del Mar Futurity by 3 1/2 lengths.

Nyquist punched his ticket to the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a determined win in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes on Sept. 26 at Santa Anita Park. With four wins in as many starts, including a pair of Grade 1 races, Nyquist headed to the the Juvenile and put himself in position to be a finalist for the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male. He sealed up that championship when he won the Juvenile over Swipe.

Nyquist was an overwhelming selection as champion 2-year-old male following his unbeaten campaign.

He opened his 2016 campaign with a win in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes, which set up a showdown between him and undefeated Mohaymen in the $1-million Xpressbet.com Florida Derby. In that race, Mohaymen moved alongside Nyquist's outside flank approaching the stretch and the reigning champion shrugged him off and powered away to a dominant victory. In the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist went off as the favorite and kept his undefeated record intact when he became the first undefeated champion 2-year-old since Seattle Slew in 1977 to win the Kentucky Derby.

In the Preakness Stakes, Nyquist was challenged early while setting a taxing pace. He took command in the stretch, but tasted defeat for the first time when Derby runner-up Exaggerator surged past in the stretch. He held on to finish third in the Preakness behind winner Exaggerator and runner-up Cherry Wine.

In his two starts since the Preakness, Nyquist ran similar races to that effort, competing gamely into the early stretch in both the Grade 1 betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park and the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing before tiring to finish fourth and sixth, respectively.

The colt is owned, trained and and ridden by Paul Reddam, Doug O'Neill and Mario Gutierrez, respectively, the same connections that campaigned 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another.

Nyquist is from the first crop of 2010 champion 2-year-old Uncle Mo out of the Forestry mare Seeking Gabrielle.