Exaggerator

Xtrema (Exaggerator) rallied to a convincing first-out score to give her freshman sire (by Curlin) his first winner while going out for the same connections that campaigned the 2016 GI Preakness S. hero. Breaking as the 21-10 second choice in a five-horse group, the $55,000 KEESEP grad tracked a speed duel from a distant third through a sharp :21.75 quarter. Appearing one-paced on the turn, the chestnut came alive entering the final furlong and blew past the tiring pace actors outside the sixteenth pole to score by four lengths over...

Even if most racing is delayed, we're all hoping it will get underway sometime this spring or early summer, if for no other reason than so we can all find out the answer to our annual favorite question. We surveyed some top judges on who their leading first-crop sire is, and to give us some under-the-radar picks as well. NICK HINES Uncle Mo will have a really good look as a "sire of sires" this year with Laoban, Outwork and Nyquist all entering the breeding shed as freshman sires in...

Even if most racing is delayed, we're all hoping it will get underway sometime this spring or early summer, if for no other reason than so we can all find out the answer to our annual favorite question. We surveyed some top judges on who their leading first-crop sire is, and to give us some under-the-radar picks as well. LINDA RICE I am a big fan of Nyquist. He was a brilliant 2-year-old, winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the Eclipse Award, and he carried that into his 3-year-old year,...

Even if most racing is delayed, we're all hoping it will get underway sometime this spring or early summer, if for no other reason than so we can all find out the answer to our annual favorite question. We surveyed some top judges on who their leading first-crop sire is, and to give us some under-the-radar picks as well. Frosted would be my top pick for freshman sire, but I would also have Exaggerator and Not This Time close behind. We have two Frosteds on the farm right now, both...

Marcus and Crystal Ryan's Mason Springs will consign two juveniles at next week's OBS March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale. It'll be the Aiken-based couple's first time selling horses at an auction other than the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale--they'll offer an Exaggerator colt (hip 162) on Tuesday and a filly by Not This Time (hip 486) on Wednesday. "We love the Midlantic sale, but it's nice to branch out finally," Crystal Ryan said of the decision to head to OBS. "We both love traveling so much. We hope to be able to...

Peter Eurton knows. He has been training since 1989, after all: the year of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. One, on the West Coast, began his sophomore campaign in an allowance race at Santa Anita over 6 1/2 furlongs, before moving up in distance for the San Felipe 17 days later. The other started out in the Swale over seven furlongs at Gulfstream--the fourth running of a race that had already been won by Chief's Crown and Seeking The Gold--before going up a furlong for the Gotham, and again for...

Through the first three installments of this series, we've repeatedly complained about ever-more manic investment in unproven stallions and the resulting potential for chronic deterioration in the gene pool. So we won't reprise the theme today, other than to remark that this situation creates a rather more immediate and specific challenge for the next group under review. Because while second- and third-season stallions can still offer breeders the possibility of riding an early vogue, this lot have just been exposed to the judgment of the yearling market--which history reveals to...

When Joe Murphy purchased the 350-acre Stoneleigh Farm 13 years ago, the Lexington businessman admitted the land was mostly for "relaxation," but the operation hit the big time as the breeder of multiple Grade I winner Exaggerator (Curlin) and again when selling that star's half-sister by Medaglia d'Oro for $1.3 million at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale last August. Murphy returns to Saratoga next week with a yearling full-sister to Exaggerator who sells as hip 206 through the Warrendale Sales consignment during Tuesday's second session of the auction. Murphy, who owns...

Exaggerator lacked running room for the majority of the race, but persevered in the end to capture the GII Saratoga Special S. at the Spa Sunday afternoon. Exaggerator has two previous West Coast starts under his belt before trying stakes company in New York Sunday. In his debut, Exaggerator was parked at the back of the field at Santa Anita June 5 and registered a mile rally to finish a well-beaten fifth going five panels. The Curlin colt stalked the pace during his second start going six furlongs at Del...