Kentucky Derby 2016 Payout: Dissecting Prize-Money Purse and Final Race Results

The first leg of the Triple Crown belongs to Nyquist after a convincing victory at the 142nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday. 

Owned by Reddam Racing and trained by Doug O'Neill, the horse jockeyed by Mario Gutierrez is just the eighth unbeaten Derby winner ever and the first 8-0 Derby winner since Majestic Prince in 1969.

Horse	Win	Place	Show
Nyquist	$6.60	$4.80	$3.60
Exaggerator	-----	$5.40	$4.20
Gun Runner	-----	-----	$6.00

While Nyquist's team joined elite company, they also gained a nice paycheck for winning one of the biggest horse races in the world:

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Prize Money
1	13	Nyquist	Mario Gutierrez	Doug O'Neill	$1.24 million
2	11	Exaggerator	Kent J. Desormeaux	J. Keith Desormeaux	$400,000
3	5	Gun Runner	Florent Geroux	Steven M Asmussen	$200,000
4	14	Mohaymen	Junior Alvarado	Kiaran McLaughlin	$100,000
5	2	Suddenbreakingnews	Luis Quinonez	Donnie Von Hemel	$60,000
6	9	Destin	Javier Castellano	Todd Pletcher	-----
7	19	Brody's Cause	Luis Saez	Dale Romans	-----
8	4	Mo Tom	Corey Lanerie	Thomas Amoss	-----
9	8	Lani	Yukata Take	Mikio Matsunaga	-----
10	17	Mor Spirit	Gary Stevens	Bob Baffert	-----
11	6	My Man Sam	Irad Ortiz Jr.	Chad Brown	-----
12	12	Tom's Ready	Brian Hernandez Jr.	Dallas Stewart	-----
13	3	Creator	Ricardo Santana Jr.	Steve Asmussen	-----
14	15	Outwork	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher	-----
15	20	Danzing Candy	Mike Smith	Clifford Sise Jr.	-----
16	1	Trojan Nation	Aaron Gryder	Patrick Gallagher	-----
17	7	Oscar Nominated	Julien Leparoux	Michael Maker	-----
18	18	Majesto	Emisael Jaramillo	Gustavo Delgado	-----
19	10	Whitmore	Victor Espinoza	Ron Moquett	-----
20	16	Shagaf	Joel Rosario	Chad Brown	-----

Nyquist did have to hold off a late push from Exaggerator, the second favorite heading into the Derby on Saturday. 

While he might have come up empty at Churchill Downs, Exaggerator could possibly look ahead to the longer, 1 ½-mile Belmont Stakes as a chance to overtake Nyquist. Especially if the horse wins the Preakness Stakes on May 21. 

Given the way Nyquist ran Saturday, there's a good chance he'll be the favorite heading into Baltimore. 

There's not much that the horse has done wrong in his two-year career. Right out of the gates Saturday, Nyquist was near the front of the pack. 

It was Danzing Candy, a speed horse out of stall No. 20, who took the early lead. He had to go all out just to get around the crowd of horses and into the inside. 

He had a 2 ½-length lead at one point, but Gun Runner overtook him on the far turn, while Nyquist continued his consistent, powerful pace. 

Nyquist took the lead on the outside stretch and never relinquished it as he hit another level and separated from the rest of the field. 

This is a skilled horse who could make up for any kind of minor mistake, and he put forth a near-perfect run at Churchill Downs. Nyquist is fast enough to take the shorter Preakness and boasts the stamina to maintain a quick pace at the Belmont Stakes. 

With that kind of makeup, horse racing fans should start getting excited at the possibility of seeing a second consecutive Triple Crown champion.