{"id":28146,"date":"2016-05-20T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/nyquist-draws-no-3-post-as-favorite\/"},"modified":"2016-05-20T08:00:17","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T15:00:17","slug":"nyquist-draws-no-3-post-as-favorite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/nyquist-draws-no-3-post-as-favorite\/","title":{"rendered":"Nyquist draws No. 3 post as favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE<\/strong> \u2014 Doug O\u2019Neill couldn\u2019t have done any better if he picked Nyquist\u2019s post position himself.<\/p>\n

After Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist landed the No. 3 post for the Preakness in a blind draw Wednesday, O\u2019Neill looked like a man with a winning lottery ticket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 3 is exactly what I wanted,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201c… We\u2019re very optimistic that we\u2019re going to break good and get into position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unbeaten in eight races, Nyquist was made the overwhelming 3-5 favorite among 11 horses in Saturday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

His selection as the best horse in the field was justified, according to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who will saddle new shooter Collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d probably be surprised if he didn\u2019t win,\u201d Baffert said about Nyquist. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be tough to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secretariat started from the 3-hole to win the 1973 Preakness, but California Chrome in 2014 was the only horse to win from third post since 1993.<\/p>\n

Starting from the 13th post position in the Derby, Nyquist won the 20-horse race by 1 1\/4 lengths over Exaggerator. Nyquist can expect far less traffic against a smaller field at the Preakness, which covers 1 3\/16th miles at Pimlico Race Course.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very mature horse that has speed away from the gate,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cAnd he doesn\u2019t like to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill enters the Preakness seeking to keep alive his hopes of winning the Triple Crown. A year ago, American Pharoah became the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since Affirmed in 1978.<\/p>\n

Exaggerator has the best odds behind Nyquist at 3-1. The horse, trained by Keith Desormeaux, drew the fifth post position.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing that Nyquist is speed oriented, he\u2019ll probably get pressed from the outside,\u201d Desormeaux said. \u201cIt may make him go a little faster. That could be tactically advantageous for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exaggerator has finished behind Nyquist on four different occasions, but Desormeaux hopes things will be different on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect what he\u2019s done,\u201d Desormeaux said, \u201cbut we\u2019re hopeful of turning the tables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stradavari, at 8-1, was the third choice, as selected by Pimlico handicapper Keith Feustle.<\/p>\n

Trainer Todd Pletcher, asked his reaction to having Stradavari starting outside at 11, said, \u201cI\u2019m happy with it. The good thing is you can kind of dictate things instead of them being dictated to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race is scheduled for around 2:30 p.m. AKDT on Saturday. The field includes Lani, a Japanese-bred horse who finished ninth in the Derby, and eight new shooters.<\/p>\n

Lani will start from the No. 6 post, which has produced 16 Preakness winners \u2014 most of any starting spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted the outside draw and No. 6 is technically outside, so he is pretty much satisfied,\u201d said Soshi Inoue, spokesman for trainer Mikio Matsunaga.<\/p>\n

From the pole, with the odds in parenthesis: Cherry Wine (20-1), Uncle Lino (20-1), Nyquist (3-5), Awesome Speed (30-1), Exaggerator (3-1), Lani (30-1), Collected (10-1), Laoban (30-1), Abiding Star (30-1), Fellowship (30-1), Stradavari (8-1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2014 Doug O\u2019Neill couldn\u2019t have done any better if he picked Nyquist\u2019s post<\/a> position himself. After Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist landed the No. 3 post for the Preakness in a blind draw Wednesday, O\u2019Neill looked like a man with a winning lottery ticket. \u201cThe 3 is exactly what I wanted,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201c… We\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28146"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}