Exaggerator, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, denying Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist a chance to win horse racing’s Triple Crown.
Advertisement
For Nyquist, the loss was his first ever after an 8-0 start to his career and, of course, it meant that there would be no repeat of a Triple Crown championship following American Pharoah’s successful sweep of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes a year ago.
Exaggerator, with Kent Desormeaux up, stayed much closer to the pace in the Preakness than in his previous four tries against Nyquist, who was out on a very fast early pace over a sloppy track.
Preakness victor Exaggerator will run in the Belmont on June 11, trainer Keith Desormeaux confirmed.
The rider who started his career in Maryland guided Exaggerator to a 3 1/2-length victory over Cherry Wine in Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness, ending any chance for a Triple Crown follow up after American Pharoah accomplished the rare feat a year ago.
Dark notes sounded at the rain-soaked track earlier in the day, however. Lady Shipman, a four-year-old filly trained by Kiaran McLaughlin and ridden by Joel Rosario, came in as a 2-5 favorite and finished in 57.85 seconds on a turf track where the going was rated good. “This is the only race he rode today, and I was, like, all these other jockeys realize it’s a quagmire down on the rail, and I’m like, what’s he doing?” In the 3-year old debuts for each, it was Nyquist by 1 1/2 lengths in the San Vicente.”I did what I could to get him happy and fresh and strong”.
Winning time for the race was 1:58.31. “More than anything Exaggerator ran a wonderful race so hats off to them”. Instead, he congratulated Team Desormeaux and praised both Exaggerator and his own horse.
“I wanted to strangle him when I saw him go to the rail”, Keith Desormeaux said.
Exaggerator, whose odds were 5-2 in the minutes before the Preakness, had proven his mettle in sloppy conditions in winning the Santa Anita Derby in April.
Doug O’Neill was still trying to put forth the best positive face, but you could see he was pained after his colt, Nyquist , lost for the first time in nine tries in the Preakness Stakes . The announced attendance was also a record – 135,256 – breaking the previous record by more than 3,000. “There was nothing we could do”, Nyquist’s jockey, Mario Gutierrez, said.
Strangely, it emptied as a large number of the party-goers headed for the gates when the entertainment finished about an hour before the main race.
And then it was all Exaggerator – no kidding. I didn’t get a chance to talk with Mario. Cherry Wine returned $9.80 and $4.20, and Nyquist paid $2.20 to show.
“We thought we had the best horse and wanted to ride him like the best horse and not try to get too cute and get ideal positioning”, he said.
It will be the first time since 2013 that a Triple Crown won’t be in the balance when the Belmont Stakes is run in three weeks. The powerfully built bay colt has won five of 11 starts, with three runner-finishes. “I’ve always said he’s had a great ability to recover and he showed it today”, Keith Desormeaux saidThe Desormeaux brothers have different personalities, and seem to enjoy ribbing each other.
Keith Desormeaux promised Exaggerator would be at the Belmont: “We’ll be there with bells on”. It was a race Nyquist skipped for the Florida Derby, or perhaps his owner and trainer didn’t like the forecast.
Advertisement
The opening quarter mile (400m) of the 1900m event was run in 22.1 seconds – the fastest in the history of the famous race.
