By race time, the odds were back to where they were on the morning line with Nyquist favored at 3-2, Exaggerator second at 5-2 and Stradivari the third choice at 8-1.
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Seizing the lead at the top of the stretch, Exaggerator splashed past the tiring Kentucky Derby victor and went on for a 3 1/2-length victory over Cherry Wine on a rain-drenched Pimlico Race Course. Nyquist opened as a 3-5 favorite in the race. Nyquist gamely fought to stay within a length of the leader deep into the stretch but exhausted and was passed late by Cherry Wine who finished second.
Keith Desormeaux dismissed the notion that Exaggerator’s previous win in the mud in the Santa Anita Derby helped the colt run so well on Saturday.
Saturday afternoon, sitting in those same seats with horses running in three races on the Pimlico card, the Jacksons saw one of their horses finish third, another finish second and a third, shielded from their view behind the infield tents, suffer a horrific leg injury and crash to the turf on the far turn.
You’ve got to feel a bit for the Preakness.
The horses will have necropsies performed at New Bolton Center Hospital in southeastern Pennsylvania, Pimlico spokesman David Joseph said. He has raced in California, New York, Louisiana, Kentucky and now Maryland and has fired nearly every time, with five wins and nine finishes in the money.
The day got off to a somber start when two horses died and a jockey was injured early in the undercard. This was his 11th lifetime start and his fifth start of the year.
Nyquist’s trainer Doug O’Neill would not confirm if Nyquist would run in the Belmont Stakes next month. And when I pitched him out, he did what he can do. These turns you want to take the fence.
In an interview two days before the race, as Gutierrez reflected on what winning the Preakness with Nyquist might mean, he was also aware that, as in any race, winning is never guaranteed. “And he recovered from the Derby quickly”, said Keith Desormeaux, who said Kent’s first comment to him when he got back to the winner’s circle was, “Keith, he’s cooled out already”.
“I hope it’s not only because of the muddy track”, Desormeaux said. O’Neill said the team will sit down, watch some replays and try to figure out what happened. “This is why he’s in the Hall of Fame, those kinds of decisions”, Keith said.
“It was an awesome race and Exaggerator is an unbelievable horse”, Desormeaux said. Just when it appeared that Nyquist was indomitable, his familiar foe rose up to deny his Triple Crown bid.
The third Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes, is on 11 June.
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“It would not be great, but everybody has to run on it”, Lani’s trainer Mikio Matsunaga said of a possible sloppy track.
