KENTUCKY DERBY

(GRADE 1)

KEITH Desormeaux stood along the outside rail of Churchill Downs, minutes after the Kentucky Derby had once again turned two, three-, four-year plans into two minutes. The build up had been brought down. And Nyquist was still undefeated, still the best three-year-old in the country and the only horse to have a chance to become a Triple Crown winner in 2016.

Desormeaux had chased Nyquist yet again, finishing second to him for the sixth time in eight starts.

“I’m as proud of my horse as I am in respectful observance of Nyquist,” Desormeaux said after Exaggerator finished one and a quarter length behind Nyquist. “He’s a great horse and it’s no shame to run second to him. That was a great horse race.”

Exaggerator beat 18 horses. Nyquist beat 19.

Owned by Paul Reddam, trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by Mario Gutierrez, Nyquist improved his record to eight-for-eight while leading second-choice Exaggerator, third-choice Gun Runner and fourth-choice Mohaymen in a formful Derby.

Speed and stamina are the keys to the Kentucky Derby and Nyquist has both.

Breaking from the number 13 stall, the bay colt responded to Gutierrez’s gentle cue and cleared all his rivals inside him, then paused while longshot Danzing Candy cleared him from the outside.

Tent poles squarely in the ground, Nyquist stalked in the clear through a quarter mile in 22.58 and a half in 45.72.

On the turn, Gun Runner rolled past Danzing Candy while Nyquist strolled to his outside.

Turning for home, Nyquist dispatched Gun Runner in a matter of strides and accelerated to the lead, Gutierrez slapped him right-handed, looked, nothing.

Nyquist drifted down to the rail, Gutierrez slapped and looked again, nothing, OK, maybe he saw the speck of Exagerrator, but it was only a speck. By the wire, Gutierrez had turned down his whip and laid over Nyquist’s withers, nothing more than a garland as the bay colt scampered across the line.

Nyquist finished the mile and a quarter distance in 2:01.31, becoming the first undefeated Derby winner since Big Brown in 2008 and the eighth undefeated Derby winner in history.

For O’Neill, he’s been here before, winning the Derby and Preakness with I’ll Have Another and choreographing a stellar career by handicap horse Lava Man, but this is different.

SPECIAL HORSE

“He’s just a special horse,” O’Neill said. “It’s safe to say, Lava Man is unbelievable and I’ll Have Another is unbelievable, but he’s definitely the best horse I have ever been around.”

It took numerous trips to the auction ring to get Nyquist to O’Neill.

Tim Hyde Jr bought Seeking Gabrielle for $45,000 at Keeneland January Horses of all Ages Sale in 2011.

Hyde entered the Louisiana-bred daughter of Forestry in the 2012 Keeneland November Sale, carrying an Uncle Mo foal, but she went unsold. In March, Nyquist was born at Ashford Stud.

Nyquist went through the sales ring three times. Pat Costello’s Paramount Sales sold him for Hyde as a weanling for $180,000 (Seeking Gabrielle brought $100,000) at Keeneland November Sale in 2013.

Some 10 months later, Gerry Dilger’s Dromoland Farm earned a $230,000 final bid from Sutton Place Stables. Five months later, Niall Brennan Stables elicited a final bid of $400,000 from Dennis O’Neill on behalf of Reddam.

Nyquist went five-for-five as a two-year-old, culminating with a win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

O’Neill mapped out a plan after that victory, to run him twice before the Derby. Nyquist won the Grade 2 San Vicente in February, shipped across the country and routed Mohaymen in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in April, then set up shop at Keeneland.

“We’re very honored and enjoying the whole process, the whole journey, trying to slow it down as much as we can and soak it all in as much as we can,” O’Neill said. “We know how unique these kind of horses are.”

Nyquist sauntered through two breezes in the morning and then ripped through one afternoon breeze going a mile to set him up for the Derby. After the mile breeze, O’Neill was bullish.

“Mario said he was checking out the crowd. He does that a little bit where he plays around. He’s a playboy. He knows he’s good and he likes to flaunt it a little bit I guess,” O’Neill said from outside his barn under the trees at Keeneland.

“This might be the first one I’ve ever called a playboy. I don’t know that I’ve ever used that before. I don’t mean it in a negative way either. He’s such a handsome colt and so gifted. We’re all just so privileged to be able to rub shoulders with him. He’s a special horse.”

After the Derby, Florent Geroux hopped off Gun Runner and explained what had happened to his trainer Steve Asmussen.

“The pace got him,” Geroux said.

Asmussen shook his head, just like Desormeaux had done.

“No, no, no,” Asmussen said. “Nyquist got him.”

They weren’t alone. So far, he’s got everybody.