In Profile: Nysos

By Peter Fornatale 

The lightly-raced Nysos will head to post for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile as one of the market leaders. Having won all but one of his starts, and representing a top-class stable, he is a horse who has carried a significant reputation from day one and may now be in a position to justify the hype.

A late foal, born in May of 2021, this clearly didn’t put off his owners the Baoma Corporation, who shelled out $550k for him at the Ocala Spring sale when the colt was still ten days shy of his second birthday. Given his late foaling date, it wasn’t a huge shock that we didn’t see Nysos until the backend of his 2-year-old season. He proved worth the wait, however, as he roared home on debut by 10.5 lengths at Santa Anita, running a hefty 96 Beyer on the process.

Clearly a horse with masses of ability, it was perhaps a surprise that he was sent off at odds of 32/5 for that first run, although bettors did not make the same mistake next time around in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes. This time starting at odds of 1/5, Nysos romped again, clearing away to win by 8.75 lengths and stamp himself out as one of the most exciting juveniles of his crop.

However, we never really got to see what Nysos would have been capable of in 2024. Already ruled out of the Kentucky Derby due to Bob Baffert’s ban from the race, in the end he had just a single start as a 3-year-old. That, once again, resulted in an impressive win as he dominated the Robert B Lewis Stakes, winning by 7.5 lengths at odds of 1/10 and running a 105 Beyer in the process.

Unfortunately, the injury sustained by Nysos in that contest meant we didn’t see him again until the Churchill Downs Stakes on the 2025 Kentucky Derby undercard. Despite losing his unbeaten record, Nysos ran a superb race off such a long lay-off, running on from the rear on a sloppy track to dead-heat for second on the post with legitimate Grade 1 performer Mindframe – who went on to win the Stephen Foster – only a neck in front and Forego winner Book’em Danno in behind. Nysos had now shown he could mix it with the very best.

With that run under his belt, Nysos returned to the West coast and his dominant ways, winning the Grade 3 Triple Bend by 5.5 lengths and running a whopping 108 Beyer in the process, before taking the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap when last seen in action, only hand ridden to win cosily and record another three-digit figure.

The issue for Nysos is that last run came back in July and he hasn’t been since, having missed the Pacific Classic due to a foot issue. I’m sure that wouldn’t have held him up too much, but it’s a concern connections weren’t able to get a run into him subsequently.

With all that said, he has a good record fresh and couldn’t really be in better hands, while it also means he’s a bigger price than maybe he would have been otherwise. If Baffert can deliver this son of Nyquist in peak condition, it’ll take a big performance to prevent him from landing his first Grade 1 win.

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