LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Post positions rarely matter except at tracks where certain styles are winning more than normal. They also matter in the Kentucky Derby because there are 20 horses in two gates, and it is the Derby, where everything matters.

Nyquist, the unbeaten 3-1 morning-line favorite drew post 13, just one spot from the end of the main gate. The other six horses will be in the auxiliary gate.

Nyquist will be running for the roses Saturday in the Kentucky Derby, but truthfully, another sponge to the forehead would feel just fine for the 3-1 favorite who has yet to be beaten. Jamie Rhodes/USA Today

GUSTAV NYQUIST

DERBY DAY

WHAT: 142nd Kentucky Derby

WHEN: 6:34 p.m. Saturday

TELEVISION: NBC

FAVORITE: Nyquist (3-1 odds)

Nyquist’s trainer, Doug O’Neill, wasn’t unhappy with the post but was more interested in the horses outside Nyquist, especially the likely pacesetter, the very fast Danzing Candy, who drew the 20 post.

“It will be interesting to see with Danzing Candy what they are going to do,” O’Neill said. “Will they try to clear everybody?”

O’Neill’s horse is quite versatile but what happens in front is always meaningful.

“I’m just honored and privileged to be around him every day,” O’Neill said of Nyquist. “We’re very optimistic … On a daily basis we celebrate what he’s done for us already.”

In the two decades of 20-horse fields, high numbers have been winning numbers. The race has been won by a horse from post 16 four times, post 15 four times, posts 13, 19 and 20 once each. Staying clear of the mayhem nearer the rail has often been a ticket to the winner’s circle.

Nyquist has one of those higher numbers. The post won’t get him to the winner’s circle but it won’t hurt his chances, either.

PAUL REDDAM is both a racehorse owner and a big Detroit Red Wings fan, so naturally his interests have dovetailed. He’s named horses after Red Wings players Niklas Kronwall, Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek in the past, but now he’s hit on his biggest find: Nyquist, named after Gustav Nyquist – the former University of Maine forward now playing with the Red Wings – and his horse is the favorite Saturday in the Kentucky Derby.

Nyquist the hockey player hails from Sweden and wasn’t much of a horse racing fan until he watched a replay of Nyquist the horse winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year. Now he’s obviously a little more into it, though as of last year was still struggling with the terminology.

“Obviously it’s a lot of fun to see that he’s winning and see that he won – I don’t know what you call it, a tournament or a cup or a race,” Nyquist the hockey player said, per MLive.com.

Reddam hails from Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River from the city. He’s been a Wings fan since childhood and, according to CNN, drank champagne from the Stanley Cup in 2002.

“That was almost as big a thrill as winning the Derby a few years ago,” he told CNN, referring to his 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, I’ll Have Another.

Sadly, Nyquist (the person) won’t be at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

But even though the two have never met in person, Reddam still invited Nyquist to sit in the owner’s box, but the hockey player got called up to Sweden’s world championship team.

TODD PLETCHER, Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill are the only trainers in this year’s Kentucky Derby with previous victories in the race.

Baffert got his fourth Derby last year with American Pharoah, who went on to sweep the Triple Crown. A win by Mor Spirit would move Baffert within one of the record held by Ben Jones.

O’Neill has the favorite this time in the undefeated Nyquist. O’Neill is 1 of 4 in the Derby, winning with I’ll Have Another in 2012.

Pletcher captured the 2010 Derby with Super Saver, his lone winner from 43 runners.

That total ranks second only to D. Wayne Lukas, a four-time Derby winner who has saddled 48 Derby horses.

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