{"id":27445,"date":"2016-06-09T08:01:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/preakness-winner-exaggerator-9-5-favorite\/"},"modified":"2016-06-09T08:01:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T15:01:07","slug":"preakness-winner-exaggerator-9-5-favorite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/preakness-winner-exaggerator-9-5-favorite\/","title":{"rendered":"Preakness winner Exaggerator 9-5 favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2014 Preakness winner Exaggerator is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in a field of 13 entered for Saturday\u2019s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown.<\/p>\n

The 3-year-old colt trained by Keith Desormeaux and ridden by his brother, Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux, drew the No. 11 post position on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Stradivari, who ran fourth in the Preakness in his stakes debut, is the surprising second choice at 5-1. Destin, sixth in the Kentucky Derby, is the third choice at 6-1. Both are trained by Todd Pletcher, a two-time Belmont winner. Preakness runner-up Cherry Wine is 8-1.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, who finished third in the Preakness, isn\u2019t running in the Belmont. He was sidelined briefly by a fever after the Preakness and is back in California.<\/p>\n

A year ago, American Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, sweeping the Derby, Preakness and Belmont.<\/p>\n

Being outside should not be an obstacle for Exaggerator, one of several 3-year-olds in the field who like to run well off the lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t see any horse that would cross over on him,\u201d Kent Desormeaux said. \u201cI\u2019d like to establish position preferably without him getting a grain of sand in his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old rider returned to the track Tuesday after a brief stay in a drug and alcohol rehab center in Utah. A one-time regular rider at Belmont Park, he feels he might have an edge over a track that measures 1\u00bd miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do actually,\u201d Desormeaux said of having a home-track advantage, just like he felt he did at Pimlico, where he also used to ride on a regular basis. \u201cI think it holds true to the Preakness, going back to that, and understanding the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherry Wine, who came flying down the stretch to nip Nyquist for second in the Preakness, has improved his finish in each of his last three starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we\u2019re sitting on a big race,\u201d trainer Dale Romans said. \u201cHis Belmont pedigree says he\u2019s set to go a mile-and-a-half as well as anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romans also sends out 20-1 long shot Brody\u2019s Cause, the Blue Grass winner who ran seventh in the Derby. Also with two horses in the race are Steve Asmussen with 10-1 Creator and Gettysburg, the 30-1 expected pace-setter, and Dallas Stewart with 30-1 long shots Forever d\u2019Oro and Seeking the Soul.<\/p>\n

Desormeaux isn\u2019t about to predict where Exaggerator will be during the race, but said \u201cI\u2019m going to let Exaggerator get comfortable, wherever that is it\u2019s going to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could have a dream run, he would be forwardly placed, and I would be able to dreamingly decide when to pull the trigger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Preakness winner Exaggerator is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in a field of 13 entered for Saturday\u2019s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown. The 3-year-old colt trained by Keith Desormeaux and ridden by his brother, Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux, drew the No. 11 post<\/a> position on Wednesday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":27446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27445"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}