Exaggerator Gallops Lap Around Belmont Track

Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Exaggerator got a feel for the Belmont Park surface on a rainy morning May 30 in his first trip to the track since his arrival in New York from Maryland the previous day.

Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, and Rocker O Ranch's Exaggerator, trained by Keith Desormeaux, galloped a lap around the 1 1/2-mile Belmont track under exercise rider Peedy Landry. He is being pointed to the June 11 Belmont Stakes (gr. I).

"He was really good," assistant trainer Julie Clark said of the 3-year-old Curlin   colt, who won the Santa Anita Derby and then finished second in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (both gr. I). "The track is so big, it kind of looks like they're going slower than they are, but he went in a nice good pace. Not fast, not slow, just right in the middle.

"He seemed to handle it well. He came back barely blowing, and then I passed him off to (his groom) Vic (Vargas) and made Vic walk him because he was a handful, like he always is."

Clark said she timed Exaggerator in 20-second furlongs through much of the gallop before he gathered momentum through the final few furlongs.

"He went a couple in 18, 19 seconds," she said. "He picked it up toward the end but he was just off of a two-minute clip, which is what we like. We don't want him going too fast. It certainly was easy."

Exaggerator may have his final breeze for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont June 4 or June 7, Clark said.

Belmont media officials said that along with Exaggerator, probables for the third leg of the Triple Crown are Brody's Cause, Cherry Wine, Creator, Destin, Governor Malibu, Lani, and Suddenbreakingnews.