Animal Kingdom leads the pack of favorites if trainer Graham Motion decides to run him in this year's edition of the Belmont Stakes. The horse came in 2nd during the Preakness, and lost by less than a length to Shackleford.
Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner, will be sent to Belmont Park this weekend to prepare for the June 11 Belmont Stakes and is slated to work a half-mile there on Monday, Barry Irwin, the president of the Team Valor International partnership that owns Animal Kingdom, informed on Tuesday morning.
In the second of three weekly polls leading up to the Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 11 Animal Kingdom continues to lead the way in the Thoroughbred Times Road to the Triple Crown poll of editors, reporters, and correspondents.
With Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom a go for the Belmont Stakes in two weeks, attention shifts to whether Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford will run in the final leg of the Triple Crown.
Much like watching a traffic light turn yellow when you are just too far away to make it, it became clear with a few yards to go that Animal Kingdom was not going to be able to run down Shackleford in the final yards of the Preakness Stakes.
BALTIMORE — Animal Kingdom won't be sneaking up on anyone — even coming from behind. The colt who came out of nowhere to win his first race on dirt in the Kentucky Derby is favored to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. "I feel more relaxed than I have all week," trainer Graham Motion said [...]
Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed...Animal Kingdom? That phrase sounds eerily similar to Sesame Street's "one of these things is not like the others." However, if Animal Kingdom should win the Preakness, the Triple Crown will be a forgone conclusion since not many three-year-olds are more apt to handle the grueling 1 1/2-miles of the Belmont Stakes than the son of Leroidesanimaux.
Though admittedly "shocked" that he won America's most-famous race, trainer Graham Motion, a British expatriate, on Sunday morning had recovered enough to start focusing on the May 21 Preakness Stakes, which he said would be the next start for Animal Kingdom, the upset winner of Saturday's 137th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
After Animal Kingdom's resounding two-and-three-quarter length victory in the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby (Grade I), the Triple Crown hype train rolls to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD for the Preakness Stakes (Grade I) in two weeks.
Team Valor International's ANIMAL KINGDOM (Leroidesanimaux [Brz]) answered any questions about his aptitude for dirt, or readiness for the Kentucky Derby (G1), Saturday morning with a sharp six-furlong work in 1:13 at Churchill Downs.
