Exaggerator gets first win as sire

Three-time Grade 1 winner Exaggerator recorded the first winner of his stud career Thursday as his daughter Xtrema won her debut at Golden Gate for some of the same connections that campaigned her sire.

Xtrema, who is out of the winning Seeking the Gold mare Gold N Eskimo, was a four-length winner, completing the five furlongs on an all-weather track in 59.62 seconds. The filly scored the win for trainer and co-owner Keith Desormeaux, who also conditioned her sire and owned a share in him with Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, and Rocker O Ranch. The filly, who was bred in Kentucky by K.C. Garrett Farm, was a $55,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Big Chief Racing and now races for Big Chief, Desormeaux, and Rocker O.

Exaggerator, by Curlin, retired to WinStar Farm in Kentucky following a racing career in which he won 6 of 15 starts for earnings of $3,581,120. He won three Grade 1 races as a 3-year-old in 2016, taking the Preakness Stakes, Santa Anita Derby, and Haskell Invitational. He also was a multiple graded stakes winner as a 2-year-old, taking the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and Grade 3 Delta Downs Jackpot. He placed in four other graded stakes, including a runner-up effort in the Kentucky Derby.

“Exaggerator was a star on the track, and we are excited to see his first-crop 2-year-olds come out running,” Elliott Walden, WinStar’s president, CEO, and racing manager, said in a press release issued by the farm Thursday night. “We’ve been thrilled about them ever since they started breezing for the 2-year-old sales.”