Exaggerator works strongly, stamps ticket to Pennsylvania Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Exaggerator turned in his final drill before another meeting with familiar rival Nyquist when breezing five furlongs in 1:00.20 over a fast track Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Keith Desormeaux was in from the Keeneland yearling sale to watch the breeze, which came shortly after the regularly scheduled harrow break at about 8:45 a.m. Eastern. Brian Hernandez Jr. was up for the work, although regular rider Kent Desormeaux will be aboard Exaggerator next Saturday in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia.

Keith Desormeaux said the work confirmed his inclination to send Exaggerator to Parx for the 1 1/8-mile Pennsylvania Derby, which is expected to draw his Kentucky Derby conqueror, Nyquist, along with Gun Runner, Awesome Slew, and another four or five 3-year-olds. Entries will be drawn Monday.

“You’d have to go, I’d think,” said Desormeaux. “Everything about the work was beautiful.”

Going solo, Hernandez loped Exaggerator up to the five-furlong pole and into a rhythmic work, with remarkably even fractions of 12 seconds, 24, and 36 reported afterward by Churchill clocker John Nichols.

“He galloped out real strong for me, all the way back to the five-eighths pole,” said Hernandez. “Good horses like him work good. It’s like Keith said – all I had to do was sit on him, old pro that he is. He did everything well within himself.”

Exaggerator will ship Wednesday to Parx in a horse van driven by Desormeaux’s assistant, Julie Clark, who has overseen the colt’s routine training at Churchill since arriving here last weekend from Saratoga.

Owned by the partnership of Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners LLC, and Rocker O Racing LLC, Exaggerator already has won three major races this year – the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, and Haskell. He was second in the May 7 Kentucky Derby to Nyquist, with whom he has a longstanding rivalry dating to early in their 2-year-old year.

Exaggerator, a dark bay colt by Curlin, has run poorly in two of his last three starts, sandwiching 11th-place finishes as the favorite in both the June 11 Belmont and Aug. 27 Travers around a triumph in the slop in the July 31 Haskell at Monmouth Park. The 33-length defeat in the Travers is why Desormeaux waited until watching the colt go through his paces Saturday morning at Churchill to give the go-ahead for the Parx showcase.

“I see no reason why we wouldn’t go,” he said.

Under conditions written into the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, the owner and trainer of any horse who has won any of five races – the three Triple Crown events, the Haskell, and the Travers – get $50,000 apiece for each victory. That means owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill will be paid $50,000 apiece for the Kentucky Derby victory by Nyquist, and the Exaggerator owners and Desormeaux will be paid $100,000 apiece (Preakness and Haskell).

In addition, the conditions dictate that an additional $250,000 be added to the gross purse if the winners of two Triple Crown races start, so the purse will actually be $1,250,000 if that happens. The gross purse would have been $1.5 million if the race had also gotten Creator, the winner of the Belmont Stakes, but he is turned out for the rest of the year.

The Pennsylvania Derby is part of a huge card that also includes the Grade 1 Cotillion, which features a matchup of the undefeated Songbird and Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia.