O'Neill: Gutierrez Ride in Preakness All My Fault

Doug O'Neill watches Nyquist after training Thursday at Monmouth Park | Equi-Photo

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OCEANPORT, NJ–Jockey Mario Gutierrez came under fire for his ride about Nyquist (Uncle Mo) in the GI Preakness, where the champion got embroiled in a speed duel that may have cost him the race. But trainer Doug O'Neill said Thursday that Gutierrez was simply following his instructions.

“It was all, all my fault,” O'Neill said.

Undefeated and coming off a win in the GI Kentucky Derby, Nyquist was the 7-10 favorite in the Preakness, but his path to the finish line was not an easy one. Breaking from post three, he got caught up in a vicious speed duel right from the start. With Uncle Lino (Uncle Mo) pressing him from the inside and Awesome Speed (Awesome Again) going after him from the outside, he was sandwiched between two horses that also wanted the lead. The result was grueling opening quarter that went in :22 1/5, the fastest in Preakness history. It was more than Nyquist could overcome, and he finished third behind Exaggerator (Curlin). He has not run since but will be favored in Sunday's GI Betfair.com Haskell at Monmouth Park.

“Losing the Preakness definitely stung,” O'Neill said. “I think I probably got a little bit too cocky, having an undefeated Kentucky Derby winner going into the Preakness with the way he was training at Pimlico. I definitely thought we were bringing King Kong. He's a champ but you can't do just anything, even with a champion. The riding instructions I gave Mario were poor and the track was a little heavier than I expected. He tried really hard and he probably ran one of his best races, almost running second after having gone the fastest opening quarter-mile in Preakness history. I was super proud of him but it was definitely one of those cases where you need to be careful not to get your expectations too high because if you do you're setting yourself up for a big fall.

“(Owner) Paul (Reddam) left it up to me so far as the instructions went. The one thing I thought would get us beat was traffic, so I told Mario if we win the first turn we win the race. I told him he had to win the first turn and stay clear. Without a doubt if I hadn't been that adamant about it Mario, seeing how fast they were going, would have taken him back a little bit. Now we've learned from that. Come Sunday, no matter how the race shapes up, Mario is just going to ride his race and if they're flying we'll be sitting off the pace and if they're crawling we'll be on the lead. We've all grown a lot from the Preakness experience.”

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