Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist the favorite at Haskell Invitational

With only six horses set to enter the starting gate when the $1-million Haskell Invitational is run at Monmouth Park on Sunday, it would appear that the race lacks the talent to match its hefty purse. Looks can be deceiving.

The mile-and-an-eighth contest features the top three Kentucky Derby finishers in Nyquist, Exaggerator and Gun Runner. And it would not be all that startling if those three were trailing American Freedom, the Iowa Derby victor who is 3-1 in the morning line. His Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, owns victories in five of the last six editions of the Haskell for a record eight wins.

Doug O’Neill, Nyquist’s trainer, said of the field, “It’s loaded with class and speed. You’ve got a top closer in Exaggerator. It’s a pretty salty race, for sure.”

Nyquist, the 6-5 favorite, drew the rail for jockey Mario Gutierrez. Exaggerator, the second choice at 5-2, will break from farthest outside for regular rider Kent Desormeaux. Both look to rebound from disappointing starts. Nyquist, the 2-year-old champion, absorbed his first defeat when he ran third to Exaggerator in the Preakness Stakes, the middle leg of the Triple Crown.

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Nyquist missed the final leg, the Belmont Stakes, when he spiked a fever after the Preakness. O’Neill expects his colt to reassert himself as the leader of the 3-year-old division. “We are very optimistic he is going to put in a champion-like performance and get back to his winning ways,” the trainer said.

Exaggerator, a distant 11^th in the Belmont, was a surprising addition to the Haskell because he had been training at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York for an expected start in the $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes there Saturday. After a sluggish six-furlong workout timed in 1:13.87 on July 23, trainer Keith Desormeaux decided that Exaggerator might prefer a different surface.

“It was just deep and cuppy and loose and Exaggerator didn’t like it,” Desormeaux said. “So we called an audible.”

Exaggerator’s late-running style also factored into the decision because the Haskell features more horses with early speed than the Jim Dandy. That should ensure a solid, if not torrid, pace that would suit the Preakness champion well.

“Now that I’ve seen the Haskell field,” Keith Desormeaux said, “wow, that was the right thing to do.”

There also were financial considerations, because the Haskell, a Grade 1 event, carries a larger purse than the Grade 2 Jim Dandy. Beyond that, the Haskell offers an automatic berth for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.

All of that led Desormeaux to conclude that it was wise to send Exaggerator against Nyquist for a sixth time. He dropped the first four meetings before the Preakness.

“It’s not because I think less of Nyquist, just that I know I’ve got a superior animal,” Desormeaux said. “When he runs his race, there is nobody he can’t beat.”