Katie Lamb will be providing preview content for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes for theScore this season. Katie's horse-racing coverage has appeared in The New York Times and the Toronto Star.
If J. Paul Reddam had his way, two Nyquists would be battling it out for the headlines in the sports pages.
The Windsor, Ontario native and lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan is also the owner of the Kentucky Derby favorite, Nyquist, who Reddam named after Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist.
But after a stinging loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the NHL Playoffs, in which Gustav Nyquist only managed to score a single goal in five games, Reddam can only hope the right winger’s big, bay namesake can prevail in the Run for the Roses on May 7.
“There's a story that the Stanley Cup is going to be at the barn on Saturday morning,” Reddam said over the phone from Los Angeles. “I don’t know if we’ll be so frivolous to have the horse drink out of it and get a photo. He’ll be the only Nyquist drinking out the Cup - that’s for sure.”
Reddam gave the horse its name as a way to rib friend Eric Johnson, a defenseman for the Colorado Avalanche, who refused to join the Red Wings. He also races Mrazek, named after his beloved team’s goaltender, Petr Mrazek.
Based in California with trainer Doug O’Neill, the 3-year-old colt rolls into the big dance undefeated in his seven starts to date, having most recently won the Florida Derby on April 2 at Gulfstream Park in Florida. A $400,000 purchase as a 2-year-old, Nyquist won four stakes races that first year on the track - Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile - and was voted Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old.
Nyquist is by the white-hot sire Uncle Mo, who has two other Derby entrants in Outwork and Mo Tom, a remarkable accomplishment considering these individuals are a part of his first crop of 3-year-olds.
Mario Guiterrez, who has ridden Nyquist in all of his starts, will pilot him on Saturday.
Four years ago, Reddam, Guiterrez, and O’Neill arrived at Churchill Downs with 12-1 shot I’ll Have Another, and left Kentucky Derby victors. Two weeks later, they won the Preakness, too. Then, a day before Belmont Stakes and a bid for the Triple Crown, I’ll Have Another suffered an injury to his tendon and was scratched. He subsequently retired.
This time, Reddam has the favorite and there is pressure that comes with racing an undefeated champion in the world’s most important race for 3-year-olds.
“The playoffs you can make mistakes in the final and still win the Cup," he said. "In the Derby, all this anticipation that’s been building and will continue to build to Saturday, boom they pop the gate and it’s over in two minutes and you’re either a hero or a goat.
“Here for us running second would just be a loss.”
There are questions if Nyquist will have the stamina for the 1-mile-1/4 distance of the Derby, as it will be the farthest he’s ever run. But more concerning to Reddam is the post. In addition to running the longest race of his career, Nyquist will have to navigate the track amid 19 others, more foes than he’s ever faced in his life. Reddam said he’d like a stall in the gate “toward the outside,” that way he hopes his colt can stay out of trouble and sail home.
“We just want a clear trip. And if he’s the best horse, he’ll win, and, if he’s not, he won’t versus having an excuse,” he said.
