by Brisnet.com
Team Valor International CEO Barry Irwin and trainer Graham Motion have
settled on the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes for champion Animal Kingdom’s return
race on February 25 at Tampa Bay Downs.
The homebred four-year-old colt will use the 1 1/16-mile turf contest as a
prep for the Group 1 Dubai World Cup five weeks later on the synthetic course at
Meydan.
Animal Kingdom has not raced since the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 11. He
came out of the classic with a hairline fracture of his left hock and underwent
surgery in late June. He has posted six workouts since December 24, including a
bullet five-furlong move in :59 3/5 Wednesday morning on the turf course at Palm
Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Florida.
“The Tampa Bay will allow him enough works to be fit enough to start back,”
Motion said. “Any of these earlier races would have been pushing it. We want to
have him fit for his first race so it doesn’t take too much out of him for the
race that we’re really pointing for.”
Animal Kingdom also began his three-year-old season on the grass, finishing
second by a head in a mile allowance race at Gulfstream Park on March 3. He
followed with a victory on Turfway Park’s synthetic track in the Grade 3 Spiral
Stakes, and switched to dirt with great success in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.
“I think a turf race will be easier on him coming back,” Motion said. “It’s a
little kinder than the dirt. If the race in Dubai was on dirt, it would probably
be a different story.”
Irwin has been very pleased watching Animal Kingdom in person the last two
weeks.
“This horse is just on ‘go,'” Irwin said. “He is relishing his work, he’s
happy to be out there, and he just loves to run. And he doesn’t seem to be
getting that tired.”