Songbird remains perfect in Pennsylvania, but Nyquist and Exaggerator fall off the pace

Songbird continues to soar. The same can hardly be said for Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist or Preakness victor Exaggerator.

Songbird remained perfect through 11 starts, seven of those coming this year, when she coasted home by 5 ¾ lengths against Carina Mia in the Cotillion Stakes on Saturday at Parx Racing. Nyquist and Exaggerator were almost equally dull in the following race, running sixth and seventh in a field of 12 in the Pennsylvania Derby won by longshot Connect.

Songbird took command at the top of the stretch without any urging from jockey Mike Smith in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Cotillion in what Smith, a Hall of Fame rider, proclaimed an ideal tune-up for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

“This was perfect,” Smith said. “This will get her on her toes.”

The Cotillion, which gave the breathtakingly fast daughter of Medaglia d’Oro 11 victories by a combined margin of 60 ¾ lengths, amounted to little more than a paid workout. Then again, it was quite a payday. The winner’s $610,000 share of the purse spiked her career earnings to $3,372,000.

Her seventh Grade 1 triumph left some to wonder why owner Rick Porter and Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer should not swing for the fences with their sensational 3-year-old filly by taking on older males in the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. There appears to be no chance that will happen.

“All along we thought about sticking with girls. Jerry doesn’t like running against the boys,” Porter said. “I do only if we win.”

Said Hollendorfer: “We’re trying to think in the smartest way in handling this filly.”

Porter, a native of nearby Wilmington, Del.., stepped out a bit by asking the still-developing filly to leave her West Coast base behind to compete twice at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York and to make another cross-country trek for the Cotillion.

She turned back Carina Mia by 5 ¼ lengths in the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 24 at Saratoga. She tacked on a second Grade 1 triumph at that iconic track when she dominated the Alabama by seven lengths on Aug. 20. She patiently sat off Carina Mia’s right flank for much of the Cotillion before rushing past seemingly whenever she pleased.

The East Coast venture might not have been Hollendorfer’s first choice, but he said of the decision, “If it works out, how can you complain?”

Clearly, the best-laid plans have gone astray for Nyquist and Exaggerator. They performed so poorly that it would be impossible to like the chances of either colt against a hard-hitting lineup expected to be led by California Chrome in the Classic.

Paul Reddam, Nyquist’s owner, was non-committal about whether a colt that accomplished so much early, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to clinch 2-year-old honors and staying undefeated until Exaggerator toppled him in the Preakness, would advance to the Classic.

“It’s hard to make a judgment off of that performance because it’s so out of character,” Reddam said.

Nyquist missed the Belmont Stakes due to a fever. He was freshened after he ran fourth to mud-loving Exaggerator in the Haskell Invitational on a sloppy track at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., on July 31. Exaggerator gained all three of his Grade 1 victories on wet tracks.

Trainer Doug O’Neill thought quiet time at San Luis Rey Downs might allow Nyquist to return to form. “We were all so optimistic, so pumped. He tried hard. They are not machines,” O’Neill said. “What are you going to do? He just got outrun.”

Jockey Mario Gutierrez kept Nyquist in perfect striking position in third for much of the 1 1/8-mile Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, which carried an enhanced $1.25-million purse. But when the time came for Nyquist to kick on, he could not.

Julie Clark, assistant to trainer Keith Desormeaux, said jockey Kent Desormeaux told her Exaggerator did not care for the track. It also was suggested that Exaggerator disliked the surface before he lagged in 11th in the Travers at Saratoga.

“I hate to keep using that as an excuse,” Clark said.

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