OCEANPORT, N.J. -- In a race eerily reminiscent of the Preakness, which also was run over a sloppy track, Exaggerator made a middle move to contention on the backstretch of the Haskell Invitational, then forged to the front in upper stretch to upset Nyquist in a major 3-year-old stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday.The difference, though, is Exagerrators Preakness victory moved him to near the top of the 3-year-old division. In the Haskell, he arguably grabbed the No. 1 spot.Weve won three Grade 1 races this year now, said Matt Bryan, the principal of Big Chief Racing, a co-owner of Exaggerator. I feel like we have a leg up now.In the Haskell, Nyquist, Awesome Slew, Gun Runner, and American Freedom all showed speed from the gate. Entering the first turn, American Freedom was fanned four wide and Gun Runner dropped back off the pace after racing three wide between horses. The quarter went in a quick 22.78 seconds.On the backstretch, American Freedom took a short lead outside Nyquist with Awesome Speed and Gun Runner racing behind them. At this point, Exaggerator, who was last early, began a steady advance while racing well out in the track under jockey Kent Desormeaux.From the three-quarter pole to the half-mile pole I wasnt asking him to go anywhere, he was just galloping, Desormeaux said.Desormeaux took a light hold of Exaggerator on the far turn, while American Freedom and Nyquist continued to duke it out on the lead through fractions of 46.62 and 1:11, with Gun Runner looming three wide.It got to the point that I thought I was going to get there too soon, so I slowed him down, Desormeaux said.Nearing the furlong pole, American Freedom, with Rafael Bejarano up, began to get the best of Nyquist and jockey Mario Gutierrez.Exaggerator forged to the front from the outside and he and American Freedom came close to making contact as Exaggerator went by. Exaggerator then came inward in front of American Freedom while drawing away to win by 1-1/2 lengths.Bejarano lodged a claim of foul against American Freedom and Desormeaux for interference in the stretch, but it was not allowed.After the race, an angry Bejarano said, This guy, he always does that. Whenever hes outside he always comes in, and he crossed over on me. It cost me the race, you know.Desormeaux said he and American Freedom did not make contact and that it was a big race. Once I was clear, of course I came over and kicked some mud back at him.American Freedom held second by two lengths over 31-1 shot Sunny Ridge, who bested Nyquist for third by a neck. Gun Runner finished fifth while Awesome Slew, who was close-up early, tired badly to be last in the six-horse field.Exaggerator has now won the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, and Haskell this year for trainer Keith Desormeaux. He finished second in the Kentucky Derby to Nyquist, who also won the Florida Derby.At a post race press conference, Julie Clark, Desormeauxs assistant trainer, said weve talked about the Travers being the next race, and I havent heard anything different. We are headed back to Saratoga tomorrow.Keith Desormeaux, who watched the race in California, told TVG, I will absolutely consider the Travers at Saratoga for him next.American Freedom could also be Travers-bound, according to trainer Bob Baffert, who also watched the race at Del Mar.Well decide tomorrow whether to bring him back home or send him to Saratoga, Baffert said by phone. Were probably going to the Travers.Doug ONeill, the trainer of Nyquist, had no excuses after the race.We will regroup, see how he comes out of it and go from there, ONeill said. I thought Mario rode him perfectly. Thats how he had to ride, with confidence.Exaggerator paid $7.20 to win as the second choice behind even-money favorite Nyquist. Exaggerator is now four for five over wet tracks in his career. He covered 1-1/8 mile in 1:48.70.The Haskell was Exaggerators first start since he tired badly to finish 11th of 13 horses in the 1-1/2-mile Belmont Stakes. He remained at Belmont with Clark overseeing his training after that race.He was gassed after the Belmont, Clark said. He was as slow to recover after a race as Ive seen. It took him about a week to recover.Exaggerator was put back in training at Belmont and worked a slow half-mile there July 9. He was then sent to Saratoga, where he worked five furlongs July 16 and six furlongs July 23.Exaggerator was originally being pointed to the Travers, but on Wednesday a decision was made to re-route him to the Haskell.We were talking for two weeks trying to decide where to go, said Bryan, his owner.Clark explained that Exaggerator had not been visually impressive in his Saratoga works, which played a part in the decision to come to the Haskell. She said in his first work, Exaggerator started looking around in the stretch and the jockey had to pump on him. She said the track was playing slow in his second work.He actually started training better once we got him to Saratoga, Clark said. I dont think the heavy Belmont going was to his liking. Jordan Shoes Australia . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov. Wholesale Authentic Jordans .com) - The red-hot Los Angeles Kings will try to extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for Sundays clash at Rexall Place. http://www.australiaairjordancheap.com/ .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Cheap Air Jordan Australia . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Jordan Shoes Australia Online . Rousey will put her perfect 8-0 record and hardware on the line against another undefeated fighter, 7-0 Sara McMann in the main event of UFC 170, which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Nevada on February 22nd. On a Saturday in late August, in a corner of the newly renovated (and visually stunning) Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, a story of American capitalism plays out in real time.It is Westgate SuperContest Weekend and people have flown in from around the country to register for what has become Americas best known football handicapping contest. Loitering on the periphery of the walkway to the registration desk are men and women with shirts sporting a combination of words that always include PROXY splashed across their chests. These are contest proxies, members of the fastest-growing and potentially shortest-lived industry in Sin City.The SuperContest is a season-long handicapping contest in which, for a one-time $1,500 fee, entrants pick five NFL games against the spread each week. The top 50 point scorers over the course of the season win a prize, with last years winner taking home more than $900,000.In a decade, the SuperContest has gone from being primarily populated by Vegas locals to a contest whose results are obsessed over nationwide nearly as much as the results of the NFL games on which the competitors pick. That growth in a lot of ways is directly attributable to proxies, who enable out-of-staters to compete by manually entering their selections each week. Without proxies, the SuperContest wouldnt be a national contest or discussion topic.But while proxies have helped drive the rise of the contest, they could also be the first casualty of the very success they have fueled.The growth of the SuperContest provides a marketThe Westgate SuperContest started out as the Hilton SuperContest in 1988. In the early years, its growth was driven by locals and professional gamblers. By 2004, when Jay Kornegay moved to the then-Hilton, the total participant pool was only around 400. While the casino had gained approval for the use of proxies by remote contestants, the proxy world at the time was an informal process of locals providing the service to out-of-state friends with no one person proxying for more than a handful of contestants.Proxies have grown in parallel with the SuperContest, as the primary source of new entrants is casual football fans from around the country. Every year since 2011 (when 517 people signed up) has been a new record entry pool, and Kornegay sees one obvious driver of that growth.The main reason for the growth of the SuperContest is social media. [It] is the avenue that out-of-staters used to find out they could enter a Las Vegas handicapping contest. We dont advertise in Chicago or anything, he says.Kornegay estimates that roughly 30 percent of entries used a proxy when he first joined the LVH in 2004. In 2015, on a total entry pool of 1,727, more than 50 percent used proxy services.Matty Simo and Toni Law proxied for a significant number of those. Working together at a local gambling information company, they were both indoctrinated into proxying for a few friends of co-workers between 2005 and 2007. At the time they were proxying for 10-20 people of the nearly 500 total participants in the contest. By joining forces and leveraging social media and connections in the broader gambling world, Simo and Law have grown relentlessly.Last year their service, Football Contest Proxy, proxied for 570 entrants, nearly 40 percent of the total entrant pool. In a lot of ways, they have helped defined the proxy industry that newer competitors either mimic or rebel against -- from fee structures to even naming conventions.It is actually fee structures where competition may have had the greatest impact on Simo and Laws operation. Until recently Simo and Law had included in their agreements that they would receive a small percentage of any winnings accrued by their clients on top of the standard flat fee charged to everyone. With increased competition not including this stipulation, Simo and Law had to eliminate it from their fee structure this year, one of their few concessions to a field increasingly crowded with smaller competitors.Tom Carroll of Vegas Football Proxy is one such competitor. A lawyer formerly of Washington D.C., he had been a part-time Las Vegas resident and contest participant for 15 years.Four years ago, he read an article by Simo about the growth of the proxy business and decided to turn the service he was doing for a few friends into a full-time proxy business through the football season, returning to the legal life in the offseason. With a client list in the range of 60-70, he wants to ensure he can be available as necessary, seeing his value as having a smaller client list and the ability it affords him to pay closer attention to each clients needs; whether that means flexibility in meeting to register, brainstorming handicapping ideas or personal text exchanges if picks are slow in arriving during the season.Growth of full-time proxiesFull-time proxies is a growing trend. Where proxying for a handful of friends and acquaintances can be done in the spare time, as client lists grow, so does the time commitment.Guy left her job this past January and Simo writes freelance with the flexibility to dial back during the season when hours are spent emailing clients, collecting, entering and verifying picks.Another of the proxies lining that walkway to registration is Nathan Walls of ProxyVegas.com. In addition to entering his fourth year as a proxy he continues to drive a cab, one profession that allows him the flexibility of schedule to work around the demands of proxying. Walls is also capping his total client list at 50 clients, a more manageable number to maintain personal service with other job commitments intruding. He says roughly two-thirds of his clients repeat each year but Walls has drawn the aattention of the other proxies by aggressively seeking to recruit possible clients by approaching anyone standing in the area.ddddddddddddWalls is also an example of the most divisive issue within the small proxying world -- the debate over the conflict of interest inherent in proxies not only submitting picks for others but also entering the contest themselves. In the event a client and the proxy are battling for money position as the season winds down, the conflict arises due to the proxys ability to see the clients picks and tailor their picks accordingly to increase their odds of winning.Walls has played previously, even placing in the money in a few years ago but has since stopped. It is more fun to root for others, he says. Carroll has also stopped playing, though in part because one of his brothers, who he partnered with on an entry, abandoned him to go solo. While Walls sees the contradiction in proxying and participating, Carroll is less concerned about it.The odds are astronomical he says of having both a client and the proxy in prime position when it matters. He also notes there are other ways around it -- including the proxy submitting their picks prior to receiving the clients picks or, if it is coming down to Week 17, have the client come out to Las Vegas and submit their picks themselves -- the cost of a trip should easily be covered by their pending winnings.The dilemma from Kelly In Vegas ProxyThe issue of proxies participating really came to a head last year with the emergence of a new proxy service: Kelly In Vegas Proxy.The service is run by partners -- Kelly in Vegas herself (Kelly Stewart) and her partner Brett Siedlecki. After years of each providing informal proxy services to friends back in the Midwest, the two joined up and launched the service prior to last season, in part to take advantage of Stewarts growing profile. In the 2014 contest, she won the mini-contest (a contest within the SuperContest for the best three-week score covering weeks 15, 16 and 17) taking home $15,000. In a world dominated by older men, a young female beating the men at their own game was a good story and gained her considerable attention. It also enabled them to help launch the new service in addition to their other jobs as professional gamblers selling picks.In their first year they had 65 clients, and this year they are targeting 10-20 percent growth. While Kellys profile helped launch the service, she is also going to continue to enter the contest, and becomes the largest target for those concerned about conflicts of interest.Siedlecki says they do their best to reduce any perceived conflict by segregating duties (with him primarily handling client pick submissions), but as long as Stewart actively participates on a weekly basis the potential for conflict exists.Carroll, despite no longer participating may have the best view on the entire conflict of interest argument. He notes that proxying is a trust-based business. In other words, if you cant trust someone to not steal your picks in the unlikely event you are both in the money, should you trust them to make timely, accurate submissions 17 times?Despite being a lightning rod for continuing to participate, it is another aspect of Stewart and Siedleckis operation that is a harbinger of what will ultimately have the bigger impact on the world of proxies. Unlike their competitors, Kelly in Vegas clients submit weekly picks via a website rather than via email or text. But they arent the only ones looking at online SuperContest submissions.The futureOne of the few things universally agreed among the proxies I spoke with is that their profession is not long for this world.In a June article with the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a newly implemented 8 percent takeout from the prize pool to pay expenses, Kornegay sent a warning shot across the proxies bows when he said he hopes to implement a procedure, pending approval of Nevada gaming regulators, that would allow out-of-state contestants to sign up in person and enter selections online.While the proxies whisper concerns that the takeout is in part intended to fund their demise, Kornegay takes a longer-term view: the Westgate, he says, has always dedicated capital and funds to making the contest more automated and secure.Last years introduction of kiosks for submission in place of the old filling in of bubbles on a parlay card being one example. When asked how long the proxy industry will survive, the consensus among the proxies is that within two years, the Westgate will gain approval and shift to an online submission process.Kornegay agrees with this view, with a caveat, My guess would be within two years. If it even happens. That is a lot of responsibility on our part to have a system that would allow people to enter online.With Gaming Commission approval still pending and the as yet unknown technical challenges, there are still many variables standing in the way but clearly everyone involved sees an end to the SuperContest proxy business in the not-too distant future.There are other contests in Las Vegas -- William Hill has a college picks contest and the Golden Nugget has an NFL contest -- but without the SuperContest the proxy industry will probably dry up.As a recovering lawyer, Carroll isnt in a hurry to return to his former profession full-time, I want to ride it as long as I can, because it makes me happy.With the largest current book of business and the most to lose, Simo is also in no rush to leave proxying but knows the clock is ticking. I treat every year like its the last, he says. ' ' '