Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom (foaled in Kentucky on March 20, 2008) by the Brazilian-bred Leroidesanimaux out of the German mare Dalicia is a Thoroughbred race horse, notable for winning the 137th Kentucky Derby. The race was run on May 7, 2011 before a record crowd of 164,858. Animal Kingdom is the latest in a long line of Kentucky Derby winners (dating back to 1979's Spectacular Bid) to fail to win the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, the most elusive championship in all of sports. Animal Kingdom has competed on multiple tracks and on turf, dirt, and synthetic surfaces, placing in the money in six of seven efforts.

Breeding and early life

Bred by Team Valor racing stable and born at Denali Stud in Paris, Kentucky, his sire Leroidesanimaux (Le roi des animaux, French, translates as "King of the animals.") was bred in Brazil and of European bloodlines that traditionally ran on turf. His dam Dalicia, was German-bred and had never raced on dirt in the course of her career.^[1]

The colt was entered into the September 2009 Keeneland Sales as a yearling. The Team Valor partnership that bred Animal Kingdom sold him for $100,000 to a new Team Valor partnership who planned to race him. The chief executive of the partnership is Barry Irwin. The original breeding partnership was dissolved.

Early racing career

At two, his training was taken over by Arlington Park trainer Wayne Catalano. In his debut race on September 18, 2010, he ran an off-the-turf 8.5 furlongs race, coming from the back of the pack to finish a strong second to the favorite, Willcox Inn. Animal Kingdom broke his maiden in his second race, a mile and an eighth Maiden Special Weight race at Keeneland Race Course, this time over Polytrack.

In his first race at age 3 (March 3, 2011), he again ran second in an optional claiming race going a mile on the turf at Gulfstream Park. He broke badly, then raced midpack before sweeping three-wide off the turn to finish a head behind the wire-to-wire winner Powhatan County.

Around this time Irwin decided to put all Team Valor horses with only one trainer and chose Graham Motion, a British expatriate.^[1] Motion, 46 in 2011, moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 16 and has been involved in Maryland racing for 26 years. Among the top 10 trainers in Maryland from 1995–2001, he was based at Laurel Park before moving his stable to the Fair Hill Training Center in 2002. Irwin selected Motion for his European-style training methods, honesty and resistance to use of unneeded medications in racing horses. Motion was one of only two top 20 money-earning trainers without a single medication violation in 2010.^[1]

On March 26, 2011, Motion entered Animal Kingdom into a Graded stakes race for the first time. Competing at Turfway Park in the Grade III Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes, again over Polytrack, he went to the post as the 3/1 second choice in the betting. Breaking slowly, he raced near the back of the pack, then made a big move to catch eventual Derby contenders Decisive Moment and Twinspired. He won by 2 and 3/4 lengths.

Triple Crown races

Two of Motion's horses were Kentucky Derby contenders: Animal Kingdom and Toby's Corner. Toby's Corner had just won the Grade I Wood Memorial but had to drop out of the running during the week of the race due to a sore leg. Motion was left with Animal Kingdom to start. On the morning of the Kentucky Derby, his morning-line odds were 30-1. By post time, he ran the race at odds of 21-1. Supposedly a turf horse, this was his first race on dirt. Animal Kingdom drew post 16 and was ridden to a 2 -3/4 length victory in the Derby by jockey John R. Velazquez, originally scheduled to ride another horse, the early favorite and American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt Uncle Mo. Uncle Mo was scratched due to a gastrointestinal illness on the Friday before the race, and Velazquez (who was discovered by his agent Angel Cordero) replaced injured rider Robby Albarado on Animal Kingdom. This was the first time Velazquez had ridden Animal Kingdom, and the jockey's first Kentucky Derby win in 13 tries.

No horse had won the Derby with only four previous races since Exterminator in 1918. Although Big Brown's 2008 Derby was only his fourth start. No horse since Needles in 1956 had won the Derby off a six-week layoff. No horse in the Derby but Secretariat closed his final half-mile faster, a spectacular :47 1/5.

It was also Motion's first Derby win, and, unfamiliar with the track, he could not find his way to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs until assisted by the trainer of fourth-place Shackleford, Dale Romans.

Animal Kingdom was entered to run in the 2011 Preakness Stakes which took place on May 21, 2011. He drew the 11th post position. Closing fast from well back of the pack, coming down the middle of the track, he caught every horse but the winner, Shackleford.^[2] Animal Kingdom's runner-up finish in the Preakness Stakes was the year's highest combined Triple Crown finish among all starters as recorded by Triple Crown Productions.

At the Belmont Stakes, on June 11, 2011, he finished out of the money attributed to a bad start on a sloppy track. He broke clean but encountered trouble almost immediately when cut off by Mucho Macho Man, who had been pushed over by Isn't He Perfect.^[3] In the process, Animal Kingdom clipped heels with yet another horse, possibly either Monzon or Mucho Macho Man, causing a stumble that nearly unseated jockey John Velazquez, throwing Velazquez forward onto the horse's neck, losing a stirrup. By the time the jockey regained his stirrup and seat, they were last. However, Animal Kingdom rallied in the homestretch, moving up from last to sixth.^[4] Isn't He Perfect finished last and his jockey, Rajiv Maragh, was later suspended seven days for careless riding.^[3]

Status

Following the Belmont, the horse came out with a stiff left hind leg. Nuclear bone scans conducted at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital revealed a small fissure at the proximal aspect of the left hind cannon bone where it articulates with the hock.^[5] A small bone defect below the previously observed fissure on his left hock was diagnosed as a slab fracture on June 29, and Animal Kingdom will not race for the remainder of the 2011 season. Two screws were placed in the slab fracture during surgery on June 30, 2011 at the New Bolton Research Center in Kennett Square.^[6] Animal Kingdom recovered well from surgery and was slated to run in the 2012 Dubai World Cup.^[7] The injury to Animal Kingdom's left hind leg resurfaced after a March 11, 2012 training run at Palm Meadows, and he was withdrawn from competition in the Dubai World Cup.^[8]

Race record

Breeding

References

External links

• Animal Kingdom Horse website
• Animal Kingdom's pedigree and racing stats
• 5-generation pedigree
• Animal Kingdom's sire
• Animal Kingdom, hope for the future of American racing
• Steve Haskin's Derby Recap
• Animal Kingdom Seeks Second Leg in Triple Crown