Exhale is simply the most talented of the bunch on the west coast....however, everyone just seems to concede he will improve stretching out based solely on the name of his stallion and damsire.
This gem about him in the Derby Trail piece on the Bloodhorse site speaks to what the position is that everyone wants to take on him: "A son of Millennium Wind out of a Manila mare, his pedigree says he’ll stretch out with no problem."
Fact is, his mother, Manilla Rose, has produced three foals, all of them winners, two of which proven graded stake type horses. Those three foals have racked up a 0-for-15 record in dirt route races!
The best of which, mud-lark Private Horde (by Whitney Handicap winner Brunswick) won 8 stake races sprinting in his career. However, he was a mediocre 7-0-2-1 in dirt route races.
This horse worked 21 2/5ths on the first preview of the Fasig Tipton FEB select sale (AKA: The Green Monkey sale)--without blinkers. That was the fastest work at the distance, by any unblinkered horse, that day.
http://fasigtipton.sitespace.com/videos/156.wmv
After that sales showing, he starts his career with back-to-back triple digit Beyer performances sprinting. Very impressive...but not exactly positives, when you talk about a horse seeing out 10 furlongs in a little more than three months.
I'm VERY impressed with this horse--however, there is no real evidence to substaniate these claims that he will improve routing. His prospects of seeing out 10 furlongs in 100 or so days, they don't look that good to me.
Stormello, on the other hand, looks, at best, to be no more than a slightly worse version of Brother Derek. He has no chance at winning the Derby.