Preakness 2016: Nyquist's challengers may include horses that skipped Derby

Nyquist expects to enter the Preakness Stakes as a heavy favorite in a field that will include many new challengers.

The unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner flew out of Louisville, Ky., on Monday and headed to Baltimore to begin preparations for the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico on May 21.

A maximum of 14 horses can run in the Preakness. Post positions are drawn on May 18.

Ten horses appeared probable for the 1 3/16-mile test, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Nyquist is 8-for-8 and a possibility to become the second undefeated Triple Crown winner along with Seattle Slew.

"We're very excited that the Derby winner and a couple others from the race are coming to the Preakness," Georgeanne Hale, the Maryland Jockey Club's racing secretary, told the newspaper. "It looks like we're going to have good field sizes and great weather. All 15 stakes Preakness weekend look to be coming together and right now it looks like two fantastic days of racing."

Nyquist, named after Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist, won Saturday's 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby in 2:01.31, holding off hard-charging Exaggerator at the wire.

It was the second Derby win for the team of owner J. Paul Reddam, trainer Doug O'Neill and jockey Mario Gutierrez. They took I'll Have Another to wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2012, but their chance at a Triple Crown was stopped when O'Neill scratched the horse with a tendon injury the morning before the Belmont Stakes.

Nyquist has given them a second shot at the Triple Crown.

"He's just a remarkable athlete," O'Neill said after Saturday's Derby win. "If you work him by himself, he'll even swish his tail a little bit as if to say, 'What do you want from me?' But if you put him in company, he's just a Ferrari."

Keith Desormeaux, the trainer of Exaggerator, said immediately after the Derby that his horse would come back in the Preakness. Desormeaux now has run second to Nyquist in six of the Derby winner's eight races -- four times with Swipe, twice with Exaggerator.

Steve Asmussen, trainer of Gun Runner, who was third, and Creator, who was 13th, said he would wait until later in the week before making definitive plans for the Preakness.

Most of the Preakness field might end up being horses who skipped the Derby.

That group includes Cherry Wine and Laoban, who ended up on the also-eligible list for the Derby and failed to scratch in, and Awesome Speed, Collected, Stradivari and Uncle Lino.

Trainer Bob Baffert's Collected enters off wins in Sunland's Festival of Racing Stakes as well as Keeneland's Lexington.

Online sports book Bovada.LV has made Nyquist 5-2 to complete back-to-back Triple Crowns, following American Pharoah in 2015.

Before the Derby, the Wynn Las Vegas' race book made Nyquist 8-1 to win all three races.

Bovada made Nyquist at 10-17 to win the Preakness and made the rest of the prospective field 6-5 to knock him off.

The sport has had only one pair of back-to-back Triple Crown winners -- Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978.