ANIMAL KINGDOM REWARDED FOR CLASSIC SUCCESS

Click above to watch Animal Kingdom winning the 2011 Kentucky Derby (Grade 1)
(Image : Yahoo Sports - Footage : Churchill Downs)

ECLIPSE AWARDS
16 January 2012

Never before had the top two Eclipse Award vote getters in the 3-year-old male division been so much like the proverbial apples and oranges comparison, which made voting in 2011 so unique and difficult.

That is how different the two protagonists, Animal Kingdom (USA) (by Leroidesanimaux - Dalicia, by Acatenango) and Caleb’s Posse (USA) (by Posse - Abbey’s Missy, by Slewacide), were from each other. Voters had to decide between a Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner and Preakness Stakes (G1) runner-up who didn’t race after June 11 and a one-turn specialist who was just another of the nondescript 3-year-olds on the Derby trail until he had a big breakthrough after being shortened up to one turn.

In the end the voters went classic as Animal Kingdom was honored this week with an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male. He edged Caleb’s Posse by a first-place vote tally of 114 to 111. Shackleford, the Preakness Stakes (Gr1) winner, received 12 first-place votes, followed by Ruler On Ice (5), Stay Thirsty (4), and Uncle Mo (1). There was one abstention in this category.

Owned and bred Team Valor International and trained by Graham Motion, Animal Kingdom was not even considered his owner’s main Derby hopeful in late March when he was entered in the non-graded Rushaway Stakes at Turfway, while Crimson China went in the rich Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes (G3) on the same card. But when Crimson China failed to make the starting field due to lack of earnings, their roles were reversed, with Animal Kingdom having earned slightly more money.

When Animal Kingdom won the Spiral on Polytrack, he thrust himself into the Derby picture and on the first Saturday in May he defeated 18 of the best 3-year-olds in training at the time. Animal Kingdom won the classic by an impressive win by 2 3/4 lengths in his first start ever on dirt, something that had never been achieved before.

A fast-closing second in the Preakness, Animal Kingdom was sent off as the 5-2 favorite for the Belmont Stakes (G1). But a disastrous start, in which he stumbled badly, nearly falling and unseating jockey John Velazquez, cost him all chance. After making a spectacular run on the far turn, he faded to sixth in what was to be his final start of the year, due to a hind leg fracture.

Extract from Blood Horse

MR. PROSPECTOR ON MR. PROSPECTOR

Mr Prospector on Mr Prospector Explosion
(Image : US Eventing / DeskPic)

“RECIPE FOR AN EXPLOSION”

There was a time when breeders across the length and breadth of the United States advocated against line-breeding (or inbreeding) to the Raise A Native tribe in general, and specifically to Mr. Prospector. The theory was that, as both were somewhat fragile at the races, they were bound to reproduce this in their progeny, and so breeders tended to heed the fad as though it was a religion. It took people in faraway places (like ourselves) to pooh-pooh the theory, not because we knew otherwise, but because we were more into practicalities than “old wives tales”, and couldn’t understand the reluctance when breeding two sound horses to one another.

Of course, the tables have turned 360 degrees, and Americans line-breed the tribe to death these days. The latest example lies in Kentucky Derby hero, Animal Kingdom’s vanquisher in the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, Ruler On Ice, who is by a grandson of Mr. Prospector (by Raise A Native) out of a granddaughter of Alydar (by Raise A Native). The outcome, Ruler On Ice, didn’t only take down the flag of Animal Kingdom in the race (the latter was unfortunate in almost coming down in the early stages of the race), but he also counted among his victims, the Preakness winner, Shackleford.

Interestingly, the Belmont hero is a product of a breeding partnership comprised of two Ph.Ds, Rob Whiteley and Pam Robinson, the former of whom designs the matings, while Pam does the raising.

“I’m a major proponent of mating mares to stallions with physical considerations in order to maximize athleticism.” Whiteley said. “I start with the physical mating first and then go to the pedigree consideration. In the case of Roman Ruler (the winner’s sire) and Champagne Glow, they fit well together - type to type, frame to frame. Both were extremely athletic and had great depth in their families by way of their inbreeding patterns. I was one of the first to recognise the potential of inbreeding to Raise A Native,” Whiteley said. “It was taboo when I got in the horse business”.

Interestingly, the Mr. Prospector line has been all-dominant in what Americans call the “true test of champions”, the nickname for the Belmont. A quick glance at recent winners emanating from this line, lies in the male line chart below.

MR PROSPECTOR
MALE LINE CHART
(Click Here)

RULER ON ICE SKATES TO BELMONT STAKES VICTORY

Click above to watch Ruler On Ice winning the Belmont Stakes
(Image : Nasdaq - Footage : NYRA)

BELMONT STAKES
11 June 2011

The parade of upsets on a rainy New York Saturday afternoon continued when the unconsidered Ruler On Ice (Roman Ruler), forwardly placed from the start by jockey Jose Valdivia Jr., kept right on going to post a 24-1 upset in the 143rd running of the GI Belmont Stakes.

Valdivia was emotional after the race. “Turning for home, everything started going in slow motion,” he said. “At the sixteenth pole, I thought, ‘This is the true Test of the Champion.’ It’s a great feeling. I have to thank the connections, George and Lori Hall and trainer Kelly Breen. I started working this horse this winter. I told Kelly that I liked him so much, I was going to freeze my butt off to come and work him every morning. He acts like he’s something special, and I don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of him yet.”

“He wouldn’t grow up,” Breen explained. “We were trying to see if with time he would mature without having to put blinkers on him. We were disappointed in the Tesio because we were looking at the Preakness, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Ever since he ran at Sunland Park, he came back with low red blood count, and it showed in the stall and it showed in the feed tub. It took a little time to get back to normal.” He added, “Blinkers was part of the maturity. He didn’t mature as fast as we wanted to. He’s already a gelding, so we can’t castrate him again, so we put blinkers on. The first time out of the gate, Jose was on him. He was still goofing off and didn’t break great. Last week, he broke right and it’s like sometimes, the bulb just goes on. It was a perfect storm of things going right, and that’s how we got here.”

GI Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford (Forestry), on the muscle in the post parade, bounced out of his outside post and quickly went to the lead. Meanwhile, Animal Kingdom was caught between Monzon (Thunder Gulch) and Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) and clipped heels, then scrambled to regain his footing as jockey John Velazquez attempted to get his left iron back. The two wound up spotting the field several lengths.

Ruler On Ice tracked Shackleford from the start as the chestnut put up splits of 0:49.08 and 1:14.51. The Preakness winner didn’t let out a notch on the sweeping second turn, however, and Ruler On Ice edged closer. Brilliant Speed loomed a serious threat entering the stretch, but appeared to hang, and Ruler On Ice forged on determinedly to secure the unlikely victory. Longshot Stay Thirsty, who was also in touch early, stayed on gamely along the fence. Shackleford ran out of gas and was tagged at the wire by Nehro (Mineshaft). “We had it the way we wanted,” acknowledged trainer Dale Romans. “He just didn’t hang on.” Jockey Jesus Castanon added, “My horse is a fighter. He tried not to let anyone pass him, but he got a little tired. He handled the off track fine, no problem .”

Animal Kingdom made an admirable outside move on the far turn, but had nothing left for the final furlong. “It looks like he was pinched by the horses on either side,” said trainer Graham Motion. “The horse almost fell down - Johnny couldn’t believe the horse stayed up. He lost his iron.” Motion added, “It’s really disappointing. It’s disappointing not to give the horse a chance to run his race. I thought down the backside we didn’t have any shot at all, and then he started to make that incredible move. But it was asking too much, late.”

BELMONT STAKES 2011
FINAL RESULT

#	Horse	Sire	Jockey	Trainer
1	RULER ON ICE	Roman Ruler	Jose Valdivia Jr	Kelly Breen
2	STAY THIRSTY	Bernardini	Javier Castellano	Todd Pletcher
3	BRILLIANT SPEED	Dynaformer	Joel Rosario	Tom Albertrani
4	NEHRO	Mineshaft	Corey Nakatani	Steve Asmussen
5	SHACKLEFORD	Forestry	Jesus Castanon	Dale Romans
6	ANIMAL KINGDOM	Leroidesanimaux	John Velazquez	Graham Motion
7	MUCHO MACHO MAN	Macho Uno	Ramon Dominguez	Kath Ritvo
8	SANTIVA	Giant’s Causeway	Shaun Bridgmohan	Eddie Kenneally
9	MONZON	Thunder Gulch	Jose Lezcano	Ignacio Correas IV
10	MASTER OF HOUNDS	Kingmambo	Garrett Gomez	Aidan O’Brien
11	PRIME CUT	Bernstein	Edgar Prado	Neil Howard
12	ISN’T HE PERFECT	Pleasantly Perfect	Rajiv Maragh	Doodnauth Shivmangal

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

TEAM VALOR CEO BARRY IRWIN OPENS NASDAQ

Click above to watch Barry Irwin opening Nasdaq trading
(Image : Nasdaq - Footage : NYRA)

BELMONT STAKES
11 June 2011

Barry Irwin, founder and CEO of Team Valor International, opened trading on the NASDAQ Thursday morning, with representatives of The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) also in attendance. Team Valor International owns Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.

www.belmontstakes.com

BELMONT 143 : BARRY IRWIN VS DALE ROMANS

Click above to watch Barry Irwin and Dale Romans at the Belmont Media Luncheon
(Image : TDN - Footage : NYRA)

BELMONT STAKES
11 June 2011

The match-up between Team Valor International’s GI Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux) and GI Preakness winner Shackleford (Forestry) got off to an early start at yesterday’s Belmont media luncheon in Manhattan. Asked about the rematch, Team Valor’s Barry Irwin said, “I’m not concerned at all about Shackleford. Mucho Macho Man is the horse I’m worried about.”

Shackleford’s trainer Dale Romans later responded, “That’s not the dumbest thing that Barry’s ever said, but it’s close.”

Speculating on the Derby winner’s road back to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup in November, Irwin commented, “After the Belmont Stakes, the Breeders’ Cup Classic would be a long-term goal at the end of the year. But I have my own idea of how to get there that wouldn’t include the GI Haskell Invitational or the GI Travers Stakes.

Undaunted, Romans countered, “I’ll meet Animal Kingdom on any track, at any distance.”

In 21 previous meetings of Derby and Preakness winners in the Belmont, Preakness winners have won 10 times and Derby winners have won 5 times. Most recently, Preakness winner Afleet Alex (Northern Afleet) won the 2005 Belmont, with Derby hero Giacomo (Holy Bull) finishing seventh.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News