not going to buy a Quarter Horse-looking
horse, that looks like he'll run five furlongs
fast and stop dead. I'm not interested in
that kind because I'm not going to develop
a horse that way.
"We need one that's athletic, with some
size and scope, some class and quality. And
I love a horse that presents himself. We see
a horse three or four times, never buy off
one look. So I love a horse that hits me ev-
ery time with a bit of presence, a nice head
and eye. I don't mean a horse can't have a
slightly plain head, but I want to see his eye
is honest."
But that's only ever the start. So the Uncle
Mo colt they bought for $230,000—"right
on our limit"— at Keeneland in September
2014 was, through his Florida winter, just a
very nice young horse.
"Did I think he was pretty special?" Bren-
nan asks. "Yeah. Did he look like a Lebron
James out there? Yeah. Did I know he was
going to win the Kentucky Derby? No. He
had a great presence about him, a beautiful
way of going about the racetrack. But we
couldn't know he was Nyquist."
Nyquist
