All Systems Go for Belmont Choice Exaggerator

It was quiet in the Belmont Park grandstand the morning of June 10, with just a handful of owners and trainers keeping an eye on activity over sun-splashed Big Sandy as training hours wore on.

Out across the vast New York oval after a trip through the paddock, Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Exaggerator moved through the rhythms of a big horse pre-race day; gate-schooling, easy jog, and a controlled gallop under Jermal "Peedy" Landy. The bay colt strained against Landry's hold coming into the stretch and eyeballed a pair of runners a few lengths in front of him, but the exercise rider who has never before had a "big horse" steeled his gaze past the rapid-fire click of camera shutters and kept Exaggerator from running off.

"Easy, Peedy, easy," Keith Desormeaux said from a box on Belmont's second floor, following the pair in their journey down the lane. The trainer's son, Bailey Desormeaux, was the only one keeping him company in the final moments of the colt's last trackwork before the June 11 Belmont Stakes (gr. I); they watched together in companionable ease as the son of Curlin   moved around Belmont.

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Exaggerator, who splashed through the slop to the Pimlico Race Course winner's circle just three weeks ago to turn the tables on champion Nyquist—after running second to that rival in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) two weeks prior—heads into the 1 1/2-mile Belmont as just one of two horses to compete in all three legs of the Triple Crown this year. The other is UAE Derby (UAE-II) winner Lani, the Japan-based son of Tapit   who has picked up a substantial following with his lengthy trips to the track, his studdish behavior around other horses, and his improved fifth in the Preakness off a Derby ninth.

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Some wonder if Exaggerator will hold his form off that 3 1/2-length career-best score and if the rigors of the Triple Crown trail have taken too much out of him, but if Desormeaux has doubts, he's not letting on.

"I told Peedy after the gallop, that's about as strong as I've ever seen him in Peedy's hands," the trainer said after his charge strolled back through the paddock and made his way back to the barn. "But the cool thing about Exaggerator is, he can control his emotions. As soon as those workers went by and Peedy asked him to settle, he pulled up pretty good. I couldn't ask for a better gallop.

"What's cool for me is, there's no issues with this horse. He's eating well, the energy's there, the color is good. ... I really can't ask my horse to be doing any better. He doesn't seem to be showing the rigors of three top races in five weeks. He looks like he's thriving off it."