Animal Kingdom to begin his stud career at Arrowfield Stud in Australia
The champion, Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby will become the first Kentucky Derby winner to start his stud career in Australia, as the majority of the Team Valor International owned colt’s breeding rights has been acquired by John Messara's Australia-based Arrowfield Stud.
Animal Kingdom will start his stud career next September down under, and the The son of Leroidesanimaux out of the Acatenango mare Dalicia will shuttle there in the beginning of 2014.
Though racing wise, an exciting year awaits Animal Kingdom, in which he will venture out of the United States for the first time in his career as the Kentucky bred by Team Valor will be going to different countries to race.
The initial goal outside for Animal Kingdom is the Group 1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan, which due to injury, Animal Kingdom couldn’t achieve this year, as Graham Motion pointed his 4-year-old colt to the richest race in the world earlier this March.
Currently exiting second to Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park on 3 November, Animal Kingdom is expected to get his 5-year-old campaign underway in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap on 9 February, 2013, and from there he will be off to Dubai.
After the Dubai World Cup, Animal Kingdom will make a stop in England, where he will presumably participate in the Royal Ascot in June.
"Originally it was our intention to race Animal Kingdom for the entire 2013 season," Irwin said in a release. "However, the prospect of getting the support of John Messara's Arrowfield Stud in the Southern Hemisphere was so meaningful that I advised my partners to sublimate their fun and take the deal.
"It is critically important to get a history-making stallion master behind a new prospect and in John Messara we have that. He has developed two of the world's most successful sires in Danehill and his son, Redoute's Choice. No way was I going to pass up this opportunity."
Animal Kingdom is the first Kentucky Derby winner to win the race on his first attempt on dirt.
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