ARCADIA — Consider this: Perhaps the best 3-year-old in the country won’t be running in the Kentucky Derby, America’s most famous horse race, on the first Saturday in May. It’s the 150th running, but it will be missing one of its biggest draws.
Nysos, a son of 2016 Derby winner Nyquist, put on a show Saturday at Santa Anita, winning the $200,000 Grade III Robert B. Lewis by 7½ 1/2 lengths under Flavien Prat while remaining unbeaten in three starts. He’s won those three races by a combined 26 ¾3lengths while displaying the type of talent that suggests he could be something special.
But racing fans around the country won’t be able to watch him in the Derby. All of Baffert’s owners, in perhaps a protest against Churchill Downs, remained steadfast by their trainer and did not transfer their horses to different barns by the Monday deadline that would have made them eligible for the Derby.
Baffert originally was suspended two years by Churchill Downs after Medina Spirit was disqualified from his Derby victory in 2021 when he tested positive for a prohibited race-day therapeutic substance after the race. Churchill officials extended the ban an extra year in July, citing “continued concerns regarding the threat to the safety and integrity of racing he poses to CDI-owned racetracks.”
So a sport that is starving for attention will keep its star 3-year-old on the sidelines on racing’s biggest day.
Nysos, assuming he runs in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6 the way he performed Saturday, might have drawn a few extra viewers if he remained healthy and made it to the starting gate. Now he’ll be pointed to the Preakness Stakes on May 18.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Nysos’ victory in the Lewis was his ability to rate off the pace and accelerate in the stretch. Baffert likes to wait until a horse shows the ability to successfuly navigate two turns before determining its true talent. Nysos took to two turns the first time like an elephant…
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