A Derby Rookie's First Churchill Morning

There was a media throng swelling, rain pelting the roof of Barn 25, and an on-the-muscle horse to cool out April 30—Exaggerator, who had just powered through his final pre-race workout for the May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and was now levitating with feel-good bounds on the end of a shank down the narrow shed row at Churchill Downs.

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One could not miss the edge in trainer Keith Desormeaux's voice, as he emphatically exercised some reality-infused crowd control, powering out of the barn and backing the press away from its walls with a strategic adjustments to some stable barricades.

"We're trying to cool this horse out and get his heart rate down. Horses don't like umbrellas!" the Derby rookie exclaimed, his own pulse clearly on the rise.

Those who have been around this Run for the Roses circus a time or two know horsemen—born worriers to begin with—have plenty of concerns to address as their runners approach the race of a lifetime. On the morning of Exaggerator's final work, for instance, the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) winner was met with an eyeful of brightly-clad marathon runners streaming through the infield, as news helicopters hovered overhead. And let's not forget the work was pushed back a day to begin with after California-based Desormeaux missed his flight to Louisville.

Much to his trainer's relief, Exaggerator stayed focused through the breeze—five furlongs in 1:02 3/5 under Hall of Fame brother Kent Desormeaux—and potential disaster was also averted back at the barn. With those hurdles out of the way, it was a much more relaxed and pleasant horseman who greeted the bedraggled press out in the rain after one final delay.

"Excuse me," he said after polishing off a mid-morning snack. "I've got some cantaloupe in my teeth."

Keith Desormeaux, for all the times his brother Kent has ridden in the Run for the Roses (19) and won (three), is living his own first Kentucky Derby experience. He could have made it with I've Struck a Nerve, but the colt who upset the 2013 Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) at odds of 135-1 sustained an ankle injury during a workout in March and never ran again. Texas Red, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) winner of 2014, was also sidelined with a foot abscess that led to a quarter crack. 

So what's it like to finally be here, to actually have a chance at saddling a Derby runner with the race just seven days away?

"The words pop out pretty good when I'm describing my horse and describing the race and why we're here, but when you ask me a question like that, the words don't come as easily," Desormeaux said. "I don't know if I'm still taking it in. It's still sinking in that we're here. It is one of those subconscious goals that all trainers hope to achieve, but now that I'm here, it's just a culmination of what we've put in over the years. No real surreal or euphoric feeling yet. It's just still work."

It was a fitting sort of morning for Desormeaux's first meeting with the Kentucky Derby media, under gray skies and steady rain. Exaggerator's Santa Anita Derby victory, one of the most visually impressive of the Triple Crown trail with a 6 1/4-length win margin, came over a sloppy, sealed track after a rare Southern California storm.

"I want a dry track because his odds will be better," Desormeaux said. "If the track's off, they're going to bet more on him, and I think he's just as good on a dry track."

The secret to Exaggerator's impressive Santa Anita Derby win, the trainer said, came not in the track condition but in the setup of the early pace. After Danzing Candy sped to the early lead and went the half in :45.24, Exaggerator closed from seventh to pick up the pieces for his large ownership, a group that includes Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, and Rocker O Ranch. WinStar Farm is also now on the bandwagon with an arranged stud deal when Exaggerator's racing career is done.

BLOOD-HORSE STAFF: Exaggerator to WinStar After Racing

"I'd love to say that my horse is awesome and he just blew them off the map because he's just physically in another orbit compared to them, but it was mainly due to the half-mile in :45," Desormeaux said. "American Pharoah, Secretariat reincarnate, cannot go :45 and continue. If Secretariat was in the race and went :45, Exaggerator would have beat him. So it's all about pace. That's the main reason why he looked so spectacular. 

"He was the only one in that race that was comfortable in the first half. They went too fast (and) he blew by them. He was running, the eighths he was clipping off were solid, but they weren't spectacular. He was just the only one finishing."

In the Kentucky Derby, Exaggerator will meet champion Nyquist again. He did not have to face the seven-for-seven colt at Santa Anita, because Nyquist traveled to Florida instead and soundly trounced previously undefeated Mohaymen in the April 2 Xpressbet.com Florida Derby (gr. I).

"Nyquist is a faster horse, he's proved that—what else does he have to do?" Desormeaux said. "The only thing I can hope is that, as you all know, these young horses are maturing daily. They're still not physically at their peak. Some horses mature faster than others. It goes back to pedigree. My horse is built different than Nyqyuist and probably has a lot more growing to do, where Nyquist is probably leveled out. I don't know, I hate to expound on another man's horse, but all I can hope is that my horse is maturing and becoming faster, where Nyquist hopefully is leveling off. That's all I can hope for."

So what positives does Desormeaux find in his colt, a bay runner purchased for $110,000 from the Warrendale Sales consignment to the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale?

"He obviously fits well," the trainer said. "I guess No. 1 is pedigree. He's by Curlin   out of a Vindication mare. That means he can run all day. This mile and a quarter race is a whole new ballgame, and endurance is the key. 

"Second of all, the style of running. It seems practical to me that it's more effective to be an off-the-pace horse in order to get a mile and a quarter, than trying to run a mile and a quarter on the lead. I don't know, that's what I think. So his style fits that as well. He should be able to get a mile and a quarter with no trouble, and of course class comes into play—and he's shown his class."

For Desormeaux, 48, who has built a career training horses for endurance and longevity rather than sheer speed, the opportunity to finally saddle a Derby starter admittedly comes with incomparable pressure. But it is the pressure that goes along with the satisfaction of competing at the highest possible level of the game, and that's the kind of pressure Desormeaux is willing to take. 

"I'm just glad to get here for my owners and for my own career," he said. "Just the style and the type of training that I do, that I think is a little offbeat, it's a little different from the norm. I want my horses to be steady for a while. To show that style can get us to the top level is pretty gratifying."