Kentucky Derby 2011 winner Animal Kingdom injured- will miss summer campaign
The Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness Stake’s runner-up, Animal Kingdom’s, summer is in jeopardy. Back-to-back absences are predicted due to a small fracture he possibly sustained during the Belmont Stakes when he bumped in Mucho Macho Man while breaking from the gates.
The injury he suffered seemed to have affected his left hind leg. It was confirmed on June 16, and further it was told that he might get back to training in a few weeks but will miss the summer campaign.
That means Animal Kingdom would not be able to participate in the all important Group One Haskell Invitational, which is going to be held on, July 31, at Monmouth Park.
Later on it was confirmed by Dr. Larry Bramlage that it is a little fissure on the top of the cannon ball. It is imperative that the horse remains inactive for a few weeks and give it a chance to heal on its own and then judge the situation by getting a nuclear scan afterwards.
The fissure is not going to be a problem for the Kentucky Derby winner and the doctor’s report indicates that too, but further scans and monitoring would be required if Animal Kingdom is to come back this season and most likely he will and run races in the fall.
Animal Kingdom did come out of the Belmont Stakes very sore and that got the trainer Graham Motion a little worried, hence the tests conducted to pry out the real problem. The injury occurred when Animal Kingdom bumped in to Mucho Macho Man and nearly fell because it was a bad stumble and clipped his heals with the other horse and that might have disrupted the cannon bone.
The chain reaction was started by Rajiv Maragh at the Belmont Stakes while he was mounting Isn’t He Perfect when he had a faulty break and came over on Mucho Macho Man and so on to Animal Kingdom, who nearly fell, and, threw his jockey off of his back.
Animal Kingdom, who came in sixth in the Belmont Stakes, squandered his chances to win the third leg of the Triple Crown possibly because he had a bad start due to the collision with Mucho Macho Man but even then after all the commotion he made a pretty impressive run. If he had not collided with Mucho Macho Man it could’ve been his race even with sluggishly wet conditions.
It would be good to see the champion horse to come back in to the action and show his mettle in the fall session.
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