Gosger Adds to Nyquist's Growing List of Graded Winners

Although it is a points-paying Kentucky Derby (G1) trial, the last such race of the Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying series, the Lexington Stakes (G3) rarely has an impact on the first classic. Run only three weeks before the Derby, it's generally the target of either a horse scrambling for a few extra points to make the Derby field or more frequently a later developer. The Lexington actually has been a more useful guide to the Belmont Stakes (G1) than the Derby, with Charismatic (in 1999) the only horse to win the Lexington and the Derby, while Touch Gold (1997), Hansel (1991), and Risen Star (1988) all completed a Lexington/Belmont double, with Hansel and Risen Star also annexing the Preakness Stakes (G1). In addition, Swale, who was runner-up to He Is a Great Deal in the inaugural running (1984), went on to capture both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, and Commendable, only fourth in the 2000 renewal of the Lexington, took the Belmont Stakes after finishing 17th in the Derby. There is no question about whether this year's Lexington Stakes winner Gosger will line up for the main event May 3 at Churchill Downs. The 20 points he earned for the Lexington are not enough to get him into the field, and, even if he qualified, his connections are viewing him as more of a long-term prospect. The Lexington was only the third lifetime start for the gray or roan colt, who has been working alongside his stable companion and Kentucky Derby hopeful East Avenue. He didn't debut until Dec. 14 at Gulfstream Park, where he closed encouragingly for second in a six-furlong maiden special weight after hitting the gate at the start and trailing early. According to his trainer Brendan Walsh, Gosger was going through a growing phase after that initial start and he wasn't seen back in action until mid-February when he took a maiden special event over a mile at Gulfstream Park by 1 1/2 lengths after racing prominently throughout. Harvey A. Clarke Racing Stables' homebred Gosger is the sixth stakes winner from the current 3-year-old crop by Nyquist, the others including undefeated 2024 champion 2-year-old filly Immersive; Tenma, winner of four graded events including the 2024 Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1); and the April 6 Beaumont Stakes (G2) victress, Verity. Overall, Nyquist—a son of the recently deceased Uncle Mo, and only the second horse to complete the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1)/Kentucky Derby double—has been represented by 30 stakes winners, including 18 graded winners from six Northern Hemisphere crops of racing age. His top runners also include an earlier champion 2-year-old filly in Vequist, and other grade 1 scorers Randomized, Johannes, Slow Down Andy, Gretzky the Great, and the undefeated Cavalieri, winner this year of the La Canada Stakes (G3) and B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes (G1). Gosger's dam, Gloria S, was unraced, but the daughter of Tapit previously produced a top-class runner in the surface-versatile American Pharoah mare Harvey's Lil Goil, whose victories included the 2020 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T), 2021 Beaugay Stakes (G3T), 2020 Regret Stakes (G3T), and the 2020 Busanda Stakes on Aqueduct Racetrack's main track. Through her Cairo Prince daughter Stifle Yourself, Gloria S is also granddam of Movin' On Up, who became a black-type winner with a victory in this year's Sand Springs Stakes. Gloria S is half sister to I'll Have Another, the champion 3-year-old male of 2012. The winner in succession of the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G2), Santa Anita Derby (G1), Kentucky Derby (G1), and Preakness Stakes (G1), but the Flower Alley colt was denied his shot at the Triple Crown when scratched the day before the Belmont with a tendon injury that proved career ending. She is also half sister to Golden Award, who was successful in the 2019 Shuvee Stakes (G3) and Turnback the Alarm Handicap (G3). Gosger's fourth dam, Last Cause, earned black-type with a third in the 1987 Miss Grillo Stakes (G3), and is half sister to 1991 Californian Stakes (G1) winner Roanoke, and to One Last Bird, who is most notably granddam of Leslie's Lady, only a minor stakes winner on the track, but now famed as dam of six-time leading sire Into Mischief, four-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder, and grade 1 winner and sire Mendelssohn. Gosger is one of 13 stakes winners, 11 graded and four grade 1, by Nyquist out of mares by tail-male descendants of A.P. Indy, three of these are out of mares by Tapit, including the previously mentioned Tenma. We'll also note that five of the others, including Immersive and Gretzky the Great, are out of mares by Bernardini, who like Tapit is the product of an A.P. Indy/Fappiano cross. Gosger is also inbred to Uncle Mo's broodmare sire Arch, who is the sire of his second dam, and the pattern is also found in four of Uncle Mo's graded stakes winners, including the three-time grade 1 winner Bast, who is inbred 3x2 to Arch.