Animal Kingdom + 2011 Kentucky Derby, Barry Irwin, owner of 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, said he has considered declaring the horse’s racing career over and sending him to stud.
After all, Animal Kingdom has nearly as many injuries (two) as races (three) since winning the Run for the Roses.
“We’ve talked to some people about selling him as a stallion this year, but in the final analysis I just couldn’t bring myself to do it,” said Irwin, chief of the Team Valor International racing partnership. “I think there’s too much racing left in this horse.”
So as Irwin, trainer Graham Motion and jockey John Velazquez try to win a second straight Derby this week with Went The Day Well, Animal Kingdom is back home in Elkton, Md., at the Fair Hill Training Center recovering from his latest setback.
His connections hope to see him race later this year.
“I think October is a realistic goal,” Motion said. “But we’re going to take our time with it and not have an agenda.”
Animal Kingdom entered last year’s Derby with little clout after winning the Spiral at Turfway, with critics pointing out the horse never had raced on dirt. Animal Kingdom created some buzz with a solid workout at Churchill Downs a week before the Derby but still went off as a 20-1 shot.
He was 12th after a half-mile and 10th after three-quarters of a mile before making a move six-wide out of the stretch and posting a 2¾-length victory over runner-up Nehro.
Two weeks later in the Preakness, Animal Kingdom made another game run but couldn’t catch Shackleford at the wire. Animal Kingdom then finished sixth in the Belmont and a few weeks later was diagnosed with a hock fracture in his left hind leg, ending his 2011 season.
“It was a huge letdown,” Motion said. “To have come that far and then have an injury, we were all very disappointed.”
Animal Kingdom returned to training in November, picked up the Eclipse Award as 3-year-old male champion and won his 4-year-old debut on Feb. 18 in an allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park.
Of the 19 horses that ran in last year’s Kentucky Derby, 16 are still racing this year or — like Animal Kingdom — recovering from an injury but still planning to race.
Irwin and Motion were hoping to send Animal Kingdom to the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31, but on March 13 the horse was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his hind end. The injury did not require surgery, but Animal Kingdom has been out of training since then.
“He had been on a very tight schedule back to training, and everything had gone remarkably well to that point,” Motion said. “Then he came back and won his prep race easily, and we were ready to go to Dubai. Then we have another huge letdown.”
Motion said Animal Kingdom is hand-walked for 30 minutes twice a day at Fair Hill and “probably will have a couple more weeks of that before getting back into some light training.”
“We know how brilliant he is, and we’re anxious to give him another shot,” Motion said. “To me, the Derby wasn’t a fluke, but we want him to have a chance to prove that. … The fact is, we haven’t had a chance to race as much as we’d like to.”
Motion said he has no particular races in mind for Animal Kingdom, but Irwin said he eventually hopes the horse is ready for the 2013 Dubai World Cup.
“The fact is that it’s a mile-and-a-quarter race on a (synthetic) surface we know he handles,” Motion said. “So there’s a lot of appeal to it. And Barry has kind of an international mind-set, and the challenge appeals to him. In this day and age, that’s refreshing because most of the time people are just looking for the easiest spot.”