National Media Teleconference Transcript and Audio (O’Neill, McLaughlin, Asmussen)

P R E S E N T A T I O N 

Operator:

Good day, ladies and gentlemen.   Welcome to the NTRA Pre-Kentucky Derby Call.   At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode.   Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.   At that time participants are asked to press star, one to register for a question.   As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jim Mulvihill.   Please go ahead, sir.

Jim Mulvihill:

All right.  Thank you Michelle and welcome everyone to today’s NTRA National Media Teleconference previewing the 142nd Kentucky Derby which is now only 11 days away.  At this point, the field’s set barring any late defections.  Over the next several days the action will mostly be in the morning as all these contenders put in their final timed works, mostly over the Churchill Downs surface.  The post-position draw will be a week from tomorrow.  That’s Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm Eastern time, and that will be live on the NBC Sports Network.  That show will kick off more than 13 hours of racing coverage from Churchill Downs by the NBC Sports group, including Oaks Day and Derby Day undercard coverage on the NBC Sports Network, and then Kentucky Derby 142 of course on the flagship NBC Network.  You can find the hours for all those live broadcasts on the announcement that Joan sends out about these teleconferences, so please check for those and we appreciate any time you can mention the TV schedule in your stories or elsewhere, and more importantly the fans appreciate it as well.

Also note that our pal Steve Byk is already live from Churchill Downs every morning from 10 to 1 Eastern time on Sirius channel 220 and XM 206 and he’s always got some of the best informed and most high profile guests to keep you up to date on everything Derby-related.  There’s also a ton of great coverage from the Horse Racing Radio Network.  That’s on Sirius channel 220 and XM 206 and archived at horseracingradio.net.

Later in this call we’re going to be joined by Kiaran McLaughlin, trainer of Mohaymen, who got positive reviews for his first work at Churchill Downs last week, as well as Steve Asmussen, trainer of the Louisiana Derby winner Gun Runner and Arkansas Derby winner Creator, and just yesterday it was announced that Steve will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame later this year.  So we’ve got a ton of ground to cover with those two gentlemen, but first we’re delighted to be joined by the trainer of the Derby favorite.  Doug O’Neill has done a masterful job of managing Nyquist.  He was the Breeders Cup juvenile winner, the 2-year-old champion and remains undefeated through seven starts, including of course the Florida Derby last time out, and you’ll recall that the Nyquist team, Doug as well as jockey Mario Gutierrez and owner Paul Reddam, they won the 2012 Kentucky Derby with I’ll Have Another.

Doug O’Neill:

Jim, that was so good.  What a nice lead-in, thank you.

Jim Mulvihill:

Well, it’s all fact.  You’ve had an incredible run the past several years and we’re always glad to have you on here with us, so appreciate the time this morning.

Doug O’Neill:

Of course, thank you.  As everyone knows, you’re only as good as your horse so just so honored to be representing Nyquist on this phone call and thanks for having me.

Jim Mulvihill:

Of course, and if you’re only as good as your horse then you’re pretty damn good right now.  Why don’t you tell us what the vibe is like in the Team O’Neill camp these days?  You must be pleased with how he’s coming into this Derby and just tell us how it feels around the barn.

 

Doug O’Neill:

You know, we’ve got a really good vibe.  Everybody is very optimistic and we’ve all been in it long enough to know you don’t want to get too high or too low and at this point it’s just keeping all the horses injury-free and just keeping them on that forward motion and keeping them on track for May 7th.

I’m still in California.  I think I’m going to go this afternoon.  I was planning on going Thursday but I can’t help myself.  Everything is going good here in Southern California and so I think I’ll be at Keeneland tomorrow is the plan.

Jim Mulvihill:

Excellent.  Before we get to the media, I just wanted to ask you about the impressions of Nyquist so far.  I mean it’s interesting to me that on paper we’ve got what looks like a super horse, an undefeated champion but when it comes to the Derby everybody wants to be a contrarian and be more clever than the next guy, so I’d just like to get your take on whether he is or is not getting the respect that he deserves given what he’s accomplished, and then maybe secondly whether you even care about all that.

Doug O’Neill:

You do.  I think I’m guilty of being a contrarian too.  I think that’s the beauty of all sports is that you can always find a reason to knock a favorite or knock a team or a horse that’s on a current roll.  That doesn’t bother me.  It does bother me when you read an article and they’re knocking him; it’s like they’re knocking your family member.  But no, I think it’s great.  Whenever you line 20 of the best 3-year-olds from around the world, I mean you really don’t necessarily have to be the best horse but you’ve got to be the luckiest horse because a lot of these horses you’re splitting hairs on talent level.  There’s so many talented horses and Nyquist has been fortunate enough to hit the wire first in all seven of his starts and we’re optimistic he can keep it going.

Jim Mulvihill:

Does any of that optimism come from the work at Keeneland on Saturday?  I mean he worked in company with Ralis and just tell us what you feel like he got out of that effort.

Doug O’Neill:

You know, I really liked what I saw.  Even going into the Florida Derby when we breezed him 5/8ths and he went 1:03 and change and I had a lot of people say, “How could you go 1:03 his last work before one of his biggest races to date?” what was the Florida Derby.  The way we have trained Nyquist, it’s really been more of a lot of strong gallop.  His works are such that he’s galloping strong going into the work, he’s galloping out of the work, so not really looking for any speed work.  Again, a great horse like Nyquist and some of these others, you could train them probably 100 different ways and they’re going to win despite you.

I think what we saw the other day is kind of what we’ve been seeing all along so we are very happy with where we’re at.

Our first question will come from Danny Brewer of horseracingscoop.com.  Please go ahead.

Danny Brewer: What do you think has been the key to finding this training happy place for Nyquist?

Doug O’Neill:

I think the key has just been keeping him happy, like you say.  Letting him put his feet where he wants to put them and just I think probably a lot of it goes to Elias, his groom, who’s just such a great horseman but he’s so kind and quiet in the stall with him and I think that really helps Nyquist build his confidence, and then Johnny Garcia is just like LeBron James at the end of the game.  He’s got ice in his veins and he does all the right things on his back every day and that’s been a huge help.

Again, I think Nyquist is just a very special horse and we’re doing one thing with him but you could probably do about 10 other things with him and you’ve still got an amazing horse.

Danny Brewer:

Confidence in him and the whole team obviously has been a big key to getting to where you’re at right now.

Doug O’Neill:

I think so.  We’ve got a real positive vibe around the barn and like every other barn things, don’t always go right on a daily basis and we all have enough experience and enough confidence in each other that we make adjustments and we just try to react according to things.  I think a large part of Nyquist’s success has just been the positive team surrounding him and led by Elias, of course.

Danny Brewer:

When does he go to Churchill?

Doug O’Neill:

The plan is for him to work Friday and have him work well, come out of it well and then go Saturday.

Danny Brewer:

Awesome.  Outstanding.  Hey, wish you the best of luck, Doug.  Looking forward to seeing you.

Doug O’Neill:

You too brother.  Take care, Danny.  Thanks, man.

Operator:

Thank you.  The next question comes from Art Wilson at the Southern California Newspaper Group.  Please go ahead.

Art Wilson:

You had that small health scare with Nyquist a few days after the Florida Derby.  Songbird, the Oaks favorite, got knocked out of the Oaks because of an illness.  How stressful and worrisome is stuff like that for you as a trainer?  You might have the Derby favorite one morning and then the next morning you show up at the barn and he’s out of the race.  How stressful is that for a trainer?

Doug O’Neill:

It is.  It would be like having a manager having Clayton Kershaw and you’re so fired up and then he gets hurt and you look down in the bullpen and you’ve don’t got anybody left down there.  Yeah, it’s one of those—and I can’t stress this enough and I tell the team that’s why we never try to get too high, at least in public, and never try to get too low when things happen because just injuries happen in sports and you’ve just got to be very lucky to keep a horse healthy and injury-free as you move forward in a direction with a horse like Nyquist.  So, you know, having the five weeks from the Florida Derby to the Kentucky Derby, we really like that because we thought if we had any hiccups we had time to get him right.  Like you say, having that little—what it turned out to be just kind of like a little shipping fever for him so he didn’t really set us off track a little bit but we ran some antibiotics through him and made sure his blood was perfect before he went back to the track.

It is.  I’d be lying if I said every day you don’t kind of walk down the shed with one eye open, one eye closed, especially the longer you’re in it and the more you see, the more nerve wracking it can be.  But, you know, we’re very optimistic with Nyquist that we’re heading the right way.

Art Wilson:

The Derby with it being normally a 19-, 20-horse field, the distance, the fact that it’s still early in the 3-year-old year and the horses are still inconsistent, I had a European trainer tell me once he thought the Derby was the toughest race in the world to win.  Would you agree with that?

Doug O’Neill:

Yeah, I haven’t ran anything in Europe but for him to say that I respect that.  It’s definitely the hardest race to win in the US I think because of just like you said.  None of the horses in the field have run that distance yet, none of them have faced that many competitors, so there’s so much goes into it luck-wise.  You know, you have to have a clean trip and then even if you get a clean trip you’ve got to have a horse that can go a mile and a quarter no matter what time it is.  It’s phenomenal to get these guys to still be running on through the lane in a race like that.

It is very challenging and what I love about Nyquist’s chances is he’s won from the rail, he’s won from the 12-hole, he’s won wire-to-wire, he’s won from just off the pace.  To me, he’s got enough—Mario can call audibles as the race unfolds if it doesn’t “unfold perfectly” and I think that really is a big benefit in this kind of race.

 

Operator:

The next question comes from Debbie Arrington of Sacramento Bee.  Please go ahead.

Debbie Arrington:

Hi Doug.  Thank you so much for coming on this morning.  Are you feeling any sort of déjà vu after your experience with I’ll Have Another?

Doug O’Neill:

That’s a great question, Debbie.  Yeah, you do feel like—well I hope I have the same ending as I’ll Have Another, at least the first two legs.  But yes, you do feel after an I’ll Have Another experience like, “Wow, that was so incredible.  I hope I soaked enough of that up because I don’t know if I’ll ever have another horse like that.” Now with Nyquist trying to fill those shoes, it does get to a point where in an ideal world you’d love to slow things down and really soak up every bit of brilliance of him because you know how unique it is to get a horse like that in your barn.

It’s I think a little bit more enjoyable this time because we’ve been there before and we can kind of soak it up a little bit more, but yeah, there’s a little déjà vu there.

Debbie Arrington:

With the horse, is there anything about Nyquist that reminds you of I’ll Have Another?

Doug O’Neill:

Well, I guess with every good horse – and these two have that in common – is that they thrive on competition.  They thrive on attention and so that they have in common.  I think Nyquist has displayed a lot more level-headedness than I’ll Have Another.  I’ll Have Another was a little bit of ‘let’s go and let’s do it now,’ and where Nyquist is more he’ll wait for Mario’s cue to go.  That’s an added bonus really.

Both of them, if they were in theater they’d both be the lead actor.  They’ve got that kind of quality about them that they’re very confident with themselves and they enjoy all the attention.

Debbie Arrington:

Is Nyquist an easy horse to work with?

Doug O’Neill:

He is.  You know, early on—he’s never been stuttish but he could be a little tough, but again, I think just the day in, day out of hanging around Elias, Elias would be great with any animal or any human.  If you knew anybody that was a little bit cranky and they hung around Elias for a couple of weeks they would calm down because he really is just a quiet, gentle soul and I think to Elias’s credit we’ve seen Nyquist mature mentally very quickly and he just continues to get more mature mentally and physically.  So, just very happy.

 

Operator:

The next question comes from Terry Keith of City News Service.  Please go ahead.

Terry Keith:

Good morning Doug.  I have a two-part question for you.  One is whether you feel pressure having the Derby favorite, who’s been the Derby favorite for quite a long time now?  The second part of it is if you can discuss the level of horses that have come from California to the Derby in the past few years.

Doug O’Neill:

The first question, do I feel pressure, I normally shake all the time every morning so that’s totally normal.  No, of course.  As much as you might say you don’t feel pressure, it’s a good pressure though.  I think I look at that I’d rather be the Derby favorite than a horse that just barely snuck into the Derby, so very much a focus on that fact that we’re so blessed to be the Derby favorite as we speak.

As far as horses coming from California, I think our big edge here in California is just the weather.  It’s so beautiful every day, so everyone trains whether you’re a $10,000 claimer or a Grade 1 horse.  Everyone trains every day and I really think for the most part that California horses are just a tad more fit than some other horses.  That’s the only reason I can see because the horsemanship back East and down South and all over the country is top notch so it’s got nothing to do with that.  I think it’s got everything to do with how we’re able to train every day.  The gentleman at Santa Anita, Denis Moore, who handles the track, really keeps a good cushion on it in the morning so horses not only do they get to train every day but they get a lot of fitness over that track at Santa Anita because of the cushion he keeps on there and they horse has got to work a little bit to get through it.  I think that’s what helps.

The next question comes from Dana O’Neil of ESPN.com.  Please go ahead.

Dana O’Neil:

Doug, along the question about the pressure, I mean obviously on the heels of what American Pharaoh did last year, the general public perhaps is paying a little more attention to the first Saturday in May than before.  How do you handle that additional pressure knowing that there’s sort of another audience that might be exposed to this sport and Nyquist could help even carry that further?

Doug O’Neill:

God, I want to be—I want to make sure Nyquist and our whole team represents this great sport in a proper way, and so I don’t know if it’s pressure as much as it is—I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us in the horseracing world to take advantage of what American Pharaoh and his connections did.  I mean he took horseracing from the back page of the sports section, sometimes not even covered in the sports section, to the front page of the sports section.  I look forward to having Nyquist be on the front of the sports section.  I look forward to it being a real positive, good story for a great business that there’s a lot of great people in.  I’m excited about the possibilities of us following up the great year American Pharaoh had.

Dana O’Neil:

Have you noticed anything since then?  Just, you know, people paying more attention.  I don’t mean obviously people who know this sport well but just general public people.  Have you had any experiences that make you think that things have changed?

Doug O’Neill:

Yes.  Where I live it’s kind of a beachy town and horseracing really isn’t on the tip of anybody’s tongue around here and a lot of people because of American Pharaoh, last year they were constantly asking me, you know, “What do you think?  Do you think Pharaoh is going to win?” Do you think this and that, and that was really cool because I never thought I’d see that day.  Now of course they’re all excited about Nyquist.  It is definitely just the average person that glances through the sports section, listens to a little bit of sports talk radio, they now have heard a lot about horseracing in the last year, year and a half and that’s a credit to Pharaoh and hopefully Nyquist can carry the torch farther.

The next question comes from Richard Rosenblatt of Associated Press.  Please go ahead.

Richard Rosenblatt:

Just a quick question on the influence of Uncle Mo on Nyquist and what you see in any of those similar qualities?  If you could just talk on that, that would be excellent.

Doug O’Neill:

Yes.  Uncle Mo was a brilliant race horse that his career was cut short but he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and he had worlds of talent.  I think we’ve seen a lot of the Uncle Mo offspring have shown a lot of talent as well and not having personally been around Uncle Mo I’d have a hard time comparing the two but, man, he was just a flat out, grade one racehorse and it sure looks like his offspring are catching on just like pop.

Richard Rosenblatt:

It sounds like when you talked about Nyquist that he’s sort of mellow and very professional what he does and I think that Uncle Mo was like that also.  When you were involved in purchasing Nyquist-

Doug O’Neill:

I was not, no.  Go ahead, sorry.

Richard Rosenblatt:

When the purchase was going on, was Uncle Mo a consideration because of any reason, or he just stood out?

Doug O’Neill:

You know, my brother Dennis who picked him out for Paul Reddam, really just loved the individual.  He loved the way he moved and he picks out athletes that way and then the pedigree is secondary.  But once he fell in love with him as an individual, the Uncle Mo was just a huge added bonus because of how good he was.  The other Uncle Mo’s were really looking good in the sales too even though none of them had run yet, but there was definitely a buzz about Uncle Mo and how his babies were looking like runners, but you never know until they run.  Fortunately, we jumped ahead of the hot Uncle Mo train.

The next question comes Paul Mazur of ChicagoNow.  Please go ahead.

Paul Mazur:

Thank you for taking my call.  Question for you, Mr. O’Neill.  Shifting directions to the Kentucky Oaks, along with your winter book favorite Nyquist, you’ve got a good horse in there in Land Over Sea.  Talk about her.  What are your shipping plans for Land Over Sea?

Doug O’Neill:

Thank you, Paul.  Yes, Land Over Sea coming off the bit win at the Fairgrounds in the Fairground Oaks, she’s doing really well and we’re penciling her in to ship in to work on Friday as well at Keeneland and then have the work go well, have her come out of it well and then she due with the rest of the barn to go to Churchill on Saturday.

Paul Mazur:

All right.  How has she progressed from her win in New Orleans to her work on Friday?

Doug O’Neill:

She’s really progressing well.  This is a filly that ran well first time out as a July 2-year-old and here we are late April of her 3-year-old season and she’s just a bigger, stronger, mentally tough filly.  Not having to knock heads with Songbird with who she did five times in a row there and getting out of town to the Fairgrounds and getting away from Songbird, it worked there so we’re hoping as Songbird recovers and doesn’t run in the Kentucky Oaks we can follow up the Fairground Oaks win with a Kentucky Oaks win.

The next question comes from Ron Flatter of RSN Australia.  Please go ahead.

Ron Flatter:

Doug, I suppose the only thing more wrong than handicappers on Derby week is the weather forecast, but it does show a lot of wet coming up next week.  Did Nyquist show enough to you with the slightly off track at the Florida Derby to keep you from worrying about that?

Doug O’Neill:

Not at all.  You know, we joked on Florida Derby day, my son was with us and Paul Reddam, who’s a big kid at heart, was goofing around with my son that the track seems better when it rained there at Gulfstream than when it was drying out and kind of loose, so he had my son do a little rain dance and it was pretty comical because within minutes it started raining.  It didn’t look like it was going to.

No, he’s just so well balanced, he’s so sure-footed that I don’t think the ground will matter a whole lot.  But I think a little bit of wet track and uncertain conditions for others would actually maybe be a benefit to us.  I don’t see wet or dry of it being a problem.

Ron Flatter:

Wet or dry, do you think your chasing Danzing Candy and Outwork?  Do you need to be close to them or try to get with them in any kind of a speed battle?

Doug O’Neill:

That’s where Mario is so good.  He’s so confident and he gets along so well with Nyquist that I think a lot of it will depend on post position, a lot of it will depend on how all three of us break, and there may be even a couple in there that change up their form and try to send (phon).  Having a long run to that first turn there at Churchill, I think whether you’re in the 1-hole or the 20-hole if you’ve got some gate speed like Nyquist does you can kind of make some adjustments and just really want to be in a good position and just kind of play it by ear.

Ron Flatter:

Finally, I know that this isn’t exactly the foremost thing on your mind but with the Detroit Red Wings out of the playoffs, have you heard that Gus is going to show up for the race?

Doug O’Neill:

That would be so cool if he did.  The little bit I know is that Gus doesn’t know much about horseracing so he even referred to the races as, “How’d he do in that tournament?” So calling a race a tournament definitely tells you he doesn’t know much about it, but I know Paul has just always been real—he’s really admired Gus’s class and his perseverance and hard work on the ice and that’s why he chose to name him after Gus.  I think they have touched base a couple of times and I’m sure Paul and Zillah Reddam have invited Gus Nyquist to the Derby and it would be great if he’s not away on holiday, it would be great to have him there for sure.

Our last question comes from Tim Wilkin of Albany Times-Union.  Please go ahead.

Tim Wilkin:

Hey Doug, I’m sure that you’ve watched some of the other preps and you know about all the horses that Nyquist will be facing a week from Saturday.  What gives you the confidence that you’ll be leading the best horse over to the Derby on that day?

Doug O’Neill:

Well, just that I don’t know much about them but I know a lot about Nyquist and so just the horse that Nyquist is I think that gives me the optimism that we’re leading the best horse over.  I think his speed out of the gate and his stamina he has shown in all his races also gives me the optimism and the confidence that we’re leading the best horse over.  But it is a quality field, a very evenly matched field and we’re going to need a lot of things to go our way to get it done but I’m optimistic.

Tim Wilkin:

Doug, how often do people come up to you and basically are anointing Nyquist as the Triple Crown Champion in lieu of what happened last year with Pharaoh and what he’s done already this year?  If that is happening, does that bug you?

Doug O’Neill:

Not at all.  But it’s funny, I was in Charles Town the other night.  The people in Charles Town just love horseracing and they were so nice.  I had so many people come up to me and I had one particular guy come up to me and said, “You won’t believe this.  I got a bet down a few weeks ago in Vegas on Nyquist to win the Triple Crown.” So I’m thinking he’s going to say he got 100-1, 200-1, something.  “I got him at 15-1.  Do you believe that?” I was thinking to myself, “Fifteen to one?  They’re robbing you there, mister.” But it was pretty cool to hear his love and passion and respect for Nyquist and it didn’t shock me that Vegas was given out such poor odds.

Tim Wilkin:

Do you get a lot of that from people?  Coming up and telling you stuff like that?

Doug O’Neill:

Yeah, probably a handful a week.  Yes, I do get it.  It’s cool and I love it.  Any time you’ve got a horse in your barn that people don’t know you, they don’t know the horse and they just are fans of the horse, God, you feel so blessed.  I love it and hopefully horses like Nyquist and these other great horses that are in the Derby can bring some new fans to the table and we can show people how amazing these horses are.

Operator:

I’ll turn the call back to Mr. Mulvihill.  Please go ahead.

Jim Mulvihill:

All right.  Doug, thank you so much for your time and safe travels to you.  We’ll see you here in Kentucky.

Doug O’Neill:

Sounds good.  Take care.  Thanks a lot.

Jim Mulvihill:

All right.  Doug O’Neill, always amenable with the media and we certainly appreciate that.

Now, certainly just as generous with his time this spring has been our next guest and that is Kiaran McLaughlin, trainer of Mohaymen, the Fountain of Youth and Holy Bull winner who was undefeated until his meeting with Nyquist in the Florida Derby.  Mohaymen was fourth in that race but he posted a nice bullet work at Churchill just last week and that made his last Gulfstream effort all the more puzzling so we’ll get to ask Kiaran about that.  Mohaymen of course will still be among the top choices in the Derby based on his dominance in those earlier Florida preps.

Kiaran, you’re on with Jim Mulvihill.  Thanks for joining us again.

Kriaran McLaughlin:

Tanks for having me, Jim.

Jim Mulvihill:

Absolutely.  First, I think we should recap the Florida Derby.  From my vantage point you all made the only serious run at Nyquist and it was pretty clear that they carried you wide into the stretch.  Even though you finished fourth in that race, to me it’s still the second-best effort in the race, so I’m curious how you assessed the result of the Florida Derby and looking back on it what you think on the effort that day.

Kiaran McLaughlin:

Well, we’re going to draw a line through the effort.  Even though he didn’t run terrible, fourth was disappointing for us who didn’t think he could lose.  But I think the trip, the day was a hot, humid day, rain, track was wet.  I think he handled the track okay, it was just the distance traveled and where he was in the track might not have been the best part of the track out in the middle, but Nyquist beat us fair and square and had to run over the same track.  So we’re going to draw a line through it and say, “We’re better off now than we were then,” and we hope we can rebound from the rain.

Jim Mulvihill:

Sure.  Now you move to a new track at Churchill Downs, so with that strong work last week was that a relief to see how well he went over the Churchill Downs surface?

Kiaran McLaughlin:

Well I have said this the other day and I’ll say it again for everybody listening.  He’s had two bad minutes in his whole life.  He works great all the time.  He trains fabulous.  Everybody is getting to see what I see every day.  The track is a little quicker here I think.  Palm Meadows is pretty deep so we anticipated him working fast.  He’s had 47 in a couple of few times at Palm Meadows, so we thought he might work faster.  But he’s just a special colt, does everything right and had two minutes that wasn’t great this year, that’s all.

Jim Mulvihill:

All right.  Let’s open it up to the media.  Michelle, you want to see who’s got a question for Kiaran?

We’ll take our first question from Danny Brewer of HorseRacingScoop.com.  Please go ahead.

Danny Brewer:

How do you make the only bad two