LOUISVILLE, Ky. — They were not worried, and they said so all week. Everyone had stopped by the barn of the trainer Doug O’Neill and told him that his colt Nyquist did not have the stamina to last a mile and a quarter — that he had cranked up his baby too much in capturing a $1 million bonus last month in the Florida Derby.
There could not be anything left in the tank after that, right? There was no way that a favorite was going to win the Kentucky Derby for the fourth consecutive year, was there?