Exaggerator won the Preakness Stakes on a sloppy track Saturday, ending a Triple Crown bid by Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist, who lost for the first time in nine career starts.
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The owners of Kentucky Derby victor Barbaro got a grim reminder of their beloved horse’s tragic run at the Preakness 10 years ago when their filly Pramedya broke down Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.
After winning the Kentucky Derby earlier in May, Nyquist had designs on joining that group, with trainer Doug O’Neill and jockey Mario Gutierrez being the same pair that brought I’ll Have Another to the brink four years earlier.
“To me it looked like Nyquist was trying to establish an outward position, maybe in the four path”, Desormeaux said.
On a day when ponchos were more popular than hats, and wellington boots preferred to high heels, a crowd that was estimated at 134,000 partied as rap artists took to the stage while the rain came and went.
The 1-1/2 mile Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown for 3-year-olds is on June 11 in NY. “And Exaggerator just kind of slid up the fence to the far turn, where I actually got to slow him down and say, ‘Whenever I’m ready'”.
“I think after everyone absorbs the loss over the next few days, we’ll move on and if we do run, it will be an exciting race”, Reddam said. “I didn’t think we could get beat, to be honest with you”.
BALTIMORE (AP) – Bonded by their prowess for getting the most out of race horses, siblings Keith and Kent Desormeaux have a relationship that can best be described as professional. Both have run well in the mud, with Exaggerator taking the Santa Anita Derby on a sloppy track and Cherry Wine breaking his maiden by 9 ½ lengths under similar conditions.
Fusaichi Pegasus won the Kentucky Derby but finished second in the Preakness to Red Bullet, who hadn’t run in the Derby. None of them survived to win the Preakness.
Desormeaux said plans are for Exaggerator to be shipped to Belmont on Sunday. The winning time for the 1 and 3/16-mile run was 1:58.31.
Homeboykris collapsed after the first race of the day while walking back to his barn.
The colt led the race from the start at Pimlico Race Course but faltered near the line and eventually finished third behind Cherry Wine. “Instead of moving toward the fence, they were moving out, so I made a 90-degree turn to get to the fence and had an absolute dream ride”. The Times wrote that after Eight Belles was euthanized on the track after the 2008 Kentucky Derby, Congress got the horse racing industry to increase safety for horses and riders.
Keith Desormeaux said on a rainy morning after. Shackleford was fifth, and the race was won by newcomer Ruler on Ice, who skipped the Derby and Preakness. That’s what always happens in horse racing.
Not long after that, Pramedya, a 4-year-old filly, fractured her leg during the fourth race. The Washington Post reports that Lael Stables also owned Barbaro, a former Kentucky Derby victor “who broke his right hind leg racing in the 2006 Preakness and died from complications from the injury in January of 2007”.
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Gutierrez was heaped with praise for his ride in the Kentucky Derby, particularly for how he took a firm hold of Nyquist leaving the starting gate and allowed a rival or two to set the pace.
