Nyquist Breeder Adding to Family Legacy

When the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale gets underway today, the goal on everyone's mind, of course, is to buy this year's Nyquist. The $400,000 2015 2yo Fasig graduate heads to the April 2 Florida Derby as one of the favorites, and is in line to collect a $1 million bonus if he wins, and is on anyone's Derby short list. His success is an interesting if unexpected tale that starts in County Tipperary, Ireland.

When Irish pinhooker and breeder Tim Hyde Jr. bought a 3-year-old mare named Seeking Gabrielle for $45,000 at the 2011 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, the plan was to resell the mare in foal. The following year, Hyde Jr. entered Seeking Gabrielle in the 2012 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. She was carrying an Uncle Mo foal.

“[Seeking Gabrielle] was a good-looking mare, out of a really nice race mare in Seeking Regina,” Hyde Jr. said. “And if you go see Uncle Mo, you can see why you would want to breed to him; beautiful horse.”

But providence had it that Seeking Gabrielle would go unsold. Hyde Jr. subsequently sent his mare to foal at Ashford Stud. Soon, Nyquist (Uncle Mo) was born.

“He was a really good-looking foal so we changed the plan and we decided to sell the foal and the mare side-by-side at the following Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale,” Hyde Jr. said. “Right away we noticed the foal was an all-quality horse. He was a very good mover.”

Nyquist sold for $180,000 as a weanling at the 2013 Keeneland November Sale, while the mare Seeking Gabrielle went for $100,000.

The next time Hyde Jr. would see Nyquist was on the biggest stage in racing.

“I was kind of in shock [when Nyquist won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile],” Hyde Jr. said. “I had kept track of him through the sales and on the track. It was fantastic to watch him win the Grade Is in California and it was great to be at the Breeders' Cup with a horse that you'd bred.”

Hyde Jr. has owned Summerhill Farm, the name given as Nyquist's breeder, for the last 12 years in association with Camas Park Stud, based in Cashel, County Tipperary in Southern Ireland.

Hyde Jr. grew up with the household names of horses that father, Tim Hyde, pinhooked–the likes of European sensations Soviet Star and Indian Skimmer, to name a few. When Hyde Jr. was very young, he would roam the stalls at his father's Camas Park Stud, where other greats like Alexandrova (Ire), Al Bahathri, and Dancing Rain, originated.

Now on the Kentucky Derby trail, Nyquist could add another classic win to the Hyde family's global legacy.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Hyde Jr. started out as an amateur steeplechase jockey, riding for the likes of John Magnier. Hyde Jr. started coming to America with his father in the 1980s and 90s to buy Thoroughbreds to bring home and sell in Europe. For decades, the Hydes have had a dominant presence at sales such as Tattersalls and Goffs. Among the memories for Hyde Jr. in those early years at the sales include that time when his father sold the last yearling by Northern Dancer at a European sale. The colt was a sales topper at the 1988 Cartier Millon Sale for Ir.1.3 million guineas.

Hyde Jr. studied at the University of Dublin Veterinary School and brought his expertise to Camas Park Stud upon graduation. He practiced as a vet for a few years, but breeding and pinhooking were still the ultimate passions for Hyde Jr. He is now second-in-command to his father at Camas Park Stud. One of the first pinhooks Hyde Jr. was involved in out of school was losing money on then yearling Johannesburg, who would go on to win the Eclipse Award in 2001 as Champion 2-Year-Old Colt. Hyde Jr. was part of the team that purchased Johannesburg as a weanling from the 1999 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale for $240,000, only to sell him as a yearling in the following year's Keeneland September Sale for $200,000. Years later, the Hydes pinhooked and retained part ownership in Johannesburg's multiple graded stakes-winning grandson No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), now standing at Coolmore and whose first foals are on the ground this year. An additional standout was Irish Oaks-winning Alexandrova, consigned by Camas Park Stud in the 2004 Tattersalls Yearling Sale, where she sold for $753,270.

“Alexandrova was a fantastic racehorse and she sold big,” Hyde Jr. said.

Another notable pinhook for the Hyde family included 2014 Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up Toast of New York, bought and pinhooked out of the 2012 Keeneland January Sale for a mere $35,000. Hyde Jr. has also bred multiple graded stakes winner Lady Lara (Ire) (Excellent Art {GB}).

Despite all the racing royalty Hyde Jr. has been involved with throughout the years, the 44-year-old takes nothing for granted, and remains convinced that he's still a “small fish in a large pond” when it comes to his bloodstock operation in North America. But these days, he has a larger presence in America than ever before.

“When I first started coming to America, we were bringing a lot of horses home to Europe to sell them there; we don't seem to do that much anymore,” Hyde Jr. said. “So mostly what we breed and sell in America stays in America. You need a lot of luck in this game. At the end of the day, it's about trying to produce the best racehorses and you need to breed the right mares to the right stallions.”

Such was the case in bringing a mare named Seeking Gabrielle to a sire like Uncle Mo. And as far as whether Nyquist can go the mile-and-a-quarter distance in the Kentucky Derby, Hyde Jr. is optimistic.

“If he got the mile-and-a-sixteenth in the Breeders' Cup [Juvenile], then why not?” Hyde Jr. said.