After drawing the No. 13 post in the Kentucky Derby and winning that race readily, it appears that trainer Doug O'Neill remains confident that the No. 3 post drawn for the Preakness is also a lucky number for Nyquist.
Nyquist in the starting gate at 2016 Kentucky Derby
According to those in the know about the races in the Triple Crown, Nyquist, the 3-5 favorite, inspires confidence because he's proved himself in his eight-race career by winning each of his races.
© 2016 by Greg Magruder
As O'Neill remarked, "Well, No. 3 is like 13 without the one coming to the party. In an ideal world, we wanted to be outside of all the speed horses, but that would've been too good. We're so blessed to have such an amazing horse who has so many gifts, one of them being that he leaves the gate running. So we feel good about No. 3."
According to those in the know about the races in the Triple Crown, Nyquist, the 3-5 favorite, inspires confidence because he's proved himself in his eight-race career by winning each of his races. He's a more decisive Preakness favorite than American Pharoah, who was a 4-5 choice in the morning line on his way to the Triple Crown last year.
With rain predicted for Saturday, there is a chance the track will be wet. Whether it rains will rain so much that that the track is sloppy remains to be seen. Although Nyquist's chances of winning the second jewel of the Triple Crown seems good, a wet track could have an impact since he is a California-based horse that has run only three of his eight races anywhere else and his races so far have been on dry tracks.
For most observers of the races, it is difficult to find any reason to be concerned about the way Nyquist will perform based on what he has done so far in his racing career. He's been 8-for-8 in his races so far and he looks like the perfect candidate to follow in the fresh Triple Crown hoofprints of American Pharoah.