Derby Gives Keys to ‘Kingdom’

By Paula Parisi May 8, 2011

Twenty-to-one shot Animal Kingdom won the 137^th Kentucky Derby on May 7 in a 2 ¾-length victory over second-placed Nehro. Mucho Macho Man finished third. A total of 19 horses competed for a piece of the $2.2 million purse as a record 164,858 spectators packed Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Archarcharch pulled up lame but was able to walk into an ambulance. He suffered a fracture to his left front leg and is reportedly recovering well from surgery, though it is questionable whether he’ll race again.

Animal Kingdom, described by USA Today sports writer Tom Pedulla as “a lightly-raced colt who had never competed on dirt,” had previously run on synthetic and turf courses. He only had a total of four starts prior to the Derby, but he managed to pull it off. The horse got a new rider the day before the race, when it was decided that his scheduled jock, Robby Albarado, was unfit to ride as a result of having been thrown from a horse and then kicked in the face and left with a broken nose.

As it happened, John Velazquez was free after his mount—the 4-1 favorite Uncle Mo—was scratched the day before the race, due to a stomach ailment. Ironically, it was the third time in the past three years that Velazquez had seen his Derby favorite scratched: Last year, Eskendereya was withdrawn due to a leg injury that wound up ending the promising horse’s career, and the year before that Quality Road was withdrawn due to a quarter crack.

Animal Kingdom, who paid $43.80, $19.60 and $13 on a $2 bet, was the first dirt virgin to become a Derby champion, and four starts were the fewest for a Derby winner since Exterminator in 1918. He was bred by his current owners, the Versaille, Ky.–based Team Valor International syndicate managed by Barry Irwin, a former writer for the Daily Racing Form. The horse trains with Graham Motion at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland.

Archarcharch wasn’t the only horse injured running for the roses. Comma to the Top emerged from his last-place finish with a chipped left ankle. The California-based horse will undergo surgery and take several months layup. Purchased as a two-year-old for $22,000, Comma to the Top has earned $551,600 for his owners, movie producers Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum (named earlier this year to run the restructured MGM) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara.

Third-placed Mucho Macho Man has his own medical backstory: The colt was initially pronounced dead at birth, only to hop to his feet and scamper across the paddock. He was initially called Lazarus.

Next up for Triple Crown hopefuls: The 136^th Preakness Stakes, a one-and-three-sixteenths-mile race at Pimlico, in Baltimore, Maryland, May 21, followed by the 143^rd running of the Belmont Stakes, a grueling mile-and-a-half contest on June 11 at Belmont Park in Long Island, New York.

 

 

 

Read more about Team Valor at http://www.teamvalor.com.

To glimpse an equine operation on an awe-inspiring scale, visit http://www.fairhilltrainingcenter.com.

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