Breeding, Distance Adding Up for Exaggerator

In an attempt to explain the steady improvement of Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Exaggerator, trainer Keith Desormeaux said he believes the colt is benefitting from his breeding and from added distance.

Desormeaux, who plans to breeze Exaggerator June 7 at Belmont Park in preparation for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes (gr. I) June 11, said Exaggerator has shown talent from the start but as distance has been added, he has steadily improved because the longer races suit him.

As a son of two-time Horse of the Year and classic winner Curlin   out of the stakes-placed Vindication mare Dawn Raid, Desormeaux believes Exaggerator figured to improve at 3. Dawn Raid is a half sister to Canadian champion older mare Embur's Song, by Unbridled's Song, and stakes winner Ten Flat, by Meadowlake.

The Equibase Speed Figures registered by the colt owned by Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, and Rocker O Ranch are most impressive. He has run a career-best figure in every start but one, a winning Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) run in the slop where he earned a 103. Since that race, he has continued his trend of earning an improved number in each start, registering a 106 for a second-place run in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and a 107 in the Preakness win.

Exaggerator closed 2015 with a 103, when he won the $1,000,000 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes (gr. III) before opening his 3-year-old season with a 104 second to Nyquist in the San Vicente Stakes (gr. II) and a 105 third in the San Felipe Stakes (gr. II). His first five ESFs last year were 71 (debut), 87 (maiden win), 88 (grade II Saratoga Special win), 95 (grade I Claiborne Farm Breeders' Futurity second), and 97 (grade I Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile fourth). 

Desormeaux said the only horse he's trained to register similar steady improvement was 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red. The son of dual classic winner Afleet Alex   registered a career-best ESF in each of his five 2-year-old starts, capped by his 6 1/2-length romp in the Juvenile at Santa Anita Park.

But Desormeaux said Texas Red had a build that would suggest he'd grow into himself and be eligible to improve, making more surprising the steady progression of Exaggerator, who Desormeaux said looked more developed from the start. 

"Texas Red did that. Each start was an amazing graduation of readable or tangible numbers increasing every race," Desormeaux said during a June 2 NTRA teleconference. "But I could explain that with Texas Red, because physically he was that way. You just knew every start he'd be getting better, because he had this huge, rangy body that you knew would get better with time."

While Exaggerator was talented enough to handle the challenge of juvenile racing and sprinting—he won a six-furlong maiden race in his second start last year—he proved best as the distances got longer.

"Exaggerator was a precocious younger horse and he's built differently (than Texas Red). He's more refined. How would I say it—tighter lines. Exaggerator has been fast from the get-go, is what I'm saying," Desormeaux explained. "The only explanation I can give you for his steady ascension is pedigree ... he's by Curlin out of a Vindication mare—that means they get better with age and distance."

Desormeaux added that Exaggerator's ability to bounce back from races has allowed him to race often, giving him valuable experience. He has raced in nine graded stakes, and competed at seven different tracks in five different states.

"After all of these starts, he finally realizes exactly what we're asking him to do," Desormeaux said. "We're not asking him to blow away there from the gate. We're not asking him to run as fast as he can from the start. We want him to settle and finish, and that's very hard to do. Horses have very volatile minds and our job as trainers is to try to keep those in check."

As part of that effort to keep Exaggerator moving forward, Desormeaux said with the three weeks from the Preakness to the Belmont, compared with the two weeks from Derby to Preakness, he plans to ask Exaggerator for just a bit more in the morning. Exaggerator made his first visit to the Belmont Park track May 30, jogging around the 1 1/2-mile oval under the eye of assistant trainer Julie Clark.

"He's been training fairly lightly since the Preakness. We picked it up a little bit (May 31). He'll do another two-minute clip (June 4) and come back with a breeze (June 7)," Desormeaux said. "The philosophy is a little different than between the Derby and the Preakness. In that two-week interim, I was more concerned with recovery and getting him to settle. That's why I spent a week in Kentucky before going to Pimlico. I thought it was wise to do that before putting him in another environment.

"Anyway, the philosophy in those two weeks was maintenance and recovery. Whereas in these couple of weeks at Belmont, maybe a little more intense training leading to the Belmont Stakes, being that it's a mile-and-a-half and on a deep, sandy surface. So I want to put a little more work in him; not extensive, but a bit more than before the last race."