Passion for the Triple Crown lands Animal Kingdom for the Eclipse Award
Animal Kingdom is a three-year-old trained by Graham Motion and the world hardly got to know him before he got sidelined, but certainly did enough to be remembered and to get himself in the conversation for the 3-year-old champion.
He broke his maiden special weight on 23rd October, 2010, at Keeneland. He gave a drastic surge to his career during the current season in which he raced five times.
His racing experience through this season is more of a sort as if Animal Kingdom has tried replicating history by attempting to qualify for the Triple Crown. It was on 7th May that Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby Grade 1 at Churchill Downs
which was a field of nineteen horses. Nehro was positioned second in the race while Mucho Macho Man was third in line after the winner.
In a matter of 2 weeks time he set his next target at the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on 21st May for a distance of 1 3/16 miles.
This event he lost against Shackleford who is also very actively running for the Championship title. Animal Kingdom stood second to the winner and in no doubt was a very close encounter, he was beaten by just half a length and had his chances for the Triple
Crown spoiled.
"He ran huge. I was hoping he was going to get there", said Motion.
"I kind of had to hustle him out of there," said John Velazquez, Animal Kingdom’s ride. "We lost a lot of ground in the first turn”.
Even after being disillusioned in the Preakness Stakes, Animal Kingdom gave the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes a try. This was on
11th June that Animal Kingdom contested for the Belmont Stakes Grade 1 at Belmont Park with jockey John Velazquez.
The horse bumped a couple of strides as soon as he was out of the gate and was nearly about to fall too, which did not happen and mercifully even the jockey succeed in maintaining his balance.
Animal Kingdom finished the race sixth and it was later found that he managed this position with an injury to his left hind leg so it would be sheer injustice to blame him for something that he was not responsible for rather made the best of the situation.
“Ultimately, he won the classic race that everyone wants to win in what was his first start on the dirt. I think people have overlooked that”, Motion told Thoroughbred Times. “He came back in his second start ever on dirt and was just beaten in the Preakness,
and then we all know what happened in the Belmont”.
Not being able to win the Triple Crown is an altogether different story as this achievement has remained to be an impossibility since decades but the passion with which Animal Kingdom kept on competing in the next two legs for the Crown does make him a valid
candidate for the American Championship Three-Year-Old Male Horse.
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