LISTEN: Analysts Break Down Kentucky Derby Favorite Nyquist
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- Can Kentucky Derby favorite Nyquist live up to the hype Saturday? WFAN's Mike Francesa posed that question to two of his guests Friday.
Handicapper Brad Thomas called Nyquist, whose odds are at 3-to-1, a "top class" horse but predicted he won't win the race.
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"He's a horse who really is just beautifully conformed. He has absolutely fantastic thick, sleek muscles on both ends, but he has a short barrel look of a sprinter miler, and even though his muscle is so great, it's mile muscle," Thomas said.
Thomas said Nyquist has had focus issues, not turning well at times and drifting in the stretch in his last two races.
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"His pacey style, his focus and lead-change issues, his distance limited on both sides' pedigree and meer 16 furlongs -- only 16 furlongs of 2016 foundation in 81 days -- I think that makes him vulnerable on the win end and maybe on the exacta as well," Thomas said.
So which horses does Thomas like? While he stopped short of picking a winner, he did say that Suddenbreakingnews offers the best combination of price and risk and also mentioned Mo Tom, Shagaf and Gun Runner as horses that intrigue him.
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Thomas provided analysis on each of the 20 horses in the field. Click on the audio player below to hear what he had to say.
Meanwhile, NBC Sports analyst and two-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Jerry Bailey also appeared on Francesa's show and said he likes what he sees in Nyquist.
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"He hasn't been beat, and every time you think that he has a chink in his armor or something he can't do, he does it," Bailey said. "So he can lead, he can stalk, he's run on three different tracks. He doesn't need things his own way."
To listen to the full interview with Bailey, click on the audio player below.