O’Neill, who won the Derby in 201w with I'll Have Another, is training Nyquist at Keeneland where he completed his final timed work on Friday, running a mile in 1:41 under regular jockey Mario Gutierrez.

The undefeated champion 2YO of 2015 was credited with splits of 27, 51 and 1:15 through six furlongs.

O'Neill said the breeze, which he said was several seconds faster than his typical mile move, gave him confidence going into the Derby.

"He looked great out there. The time he went today without much effort was wowing," O'Neill said.

Nyquist started the work a couple lengths behind G1-winning workmate Ralis and looked very fluid through the turn and backstretch, quickly moving to even terms with his partner.

In the stretch, Nyquist let it out a notch and quickly pulled away from Ralis while taking several looks at the big crowd watching his work.

"He does play around a little bit," O'Neill said. "He's a playboy. He knows he's good and he likes to flaunt it a little bit I guess.

“What we've seen today is what we've seen prior to his other races. It's worked then, so I'm optimistic it will work in eight days.”

The plan now is to ship to Louisville this weekend.

“A little jog, a little gallop—not a lot going on next week for him’,” O’Neill said.

At Churchill Downs Todd Pletcher was pleased with the final breezes of G1 Wood Memorial winner Outwork and G2 Tampa Bay Derby winner Destin.

Outwork went five furlongs in 61.2 in company with Azar with the Uncle Mo colt delivering fractions of 13.2 and 37.4 under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

“What I really liked was the way he finished," Pletcher said. "Sometimes he tends to idle a little bit. Today I thought he was much more professional, focused, and stayed concentrated throughout the gallop."

Destin, in company with Stradivari, went five furlongs in 60.01, producing fractions of 12.6 and 37.4 with Javier Castellano in the irons.

"We wanted to make sure we got a solid one with a strong gallop out," Pletcher said of the Giant's Causeway colt.

"If we can keep him focused, I think he'll get the distance."

The Tampa Bay Derby was his last outing eight weeks ago and he has not gone past 1 1/16 miles.

"It was a tough decision to run fresh in the Derby because you're passing up a good opportunity in between," Pletcher said.

"The Wood Memorial, Blue Grass, Arkansas Derby were considerations and significant races on their own but we've had success in the past giving horses a little extra time.

“We just feel like sometimes our horses run well fresh, and that should apply to the Kentucky Derby as much as any other race."

“I feel very good about the way our two are coming up to it so we hope for the remaining eight days to go smoothly."