Animal Kingdom resumes galloping, Went the Day Well scheduled for work

Animal Kingdom resumes galloping, Went the Day Well
scheduled for work

Animal Kingdom with his groom, Carlos Osegara (Megan Jones/Team Valor International) by Brisnet.com Champion Animal Kingdom resumed galloping on Thursday morning at Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland as he moves toward another comeback this fall. The 2011 Kentucky Derby winner missed 60 days of training to recover from a hairline fracture of the ilium, a part of the pelvis. The injury required no surgery but was discovered only a week before Animal Kingdom was scheduled to depart for the Group 1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan racecourse in late March. He scored an impressive win on turf at Gulfstream Park in his lone start this year. “What happened to him was really just a blip on the radar, not a serious injury at all, the timing was just horrible,” said Barry Irwin, chief executive officer of the four-year-old colt’s owner and breeder, Team Valor International. “We’re excited to get him back. We have a goal in mind for him at the end of the year, but we don’t want to say what it is just yet.”

Since late May, trainer Graham Motion had been sending Animal Kingdom to a
grass field at Fair Hill for long jogs. The first week, the son of
Leroidesanimaux trained alongside Went the Day Well, who finished fourth for
Team Valor in this year’s Kentucky Derby and matched his elder by winning the
Grade 3 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park.

Went the Day Well received a bit of down time following a disappointing
10th-place finish in the Preakness Stakes. Nothing was found to be amiss with
the Proud Citizen colt following that performance, and he is scheduled to turn
in his first workout since that May 19 contest on Saturday.

“He just didn’t bring his game,” Irwin noted. “It’s certainly not like him to
throw in the towel — look what he did in the Derby when he faced all kinds of
trouble — so he must have just been knocked out more from that race than anyone
could have known.

“We’ve given him some time to recover and will get him ready now for
Saratoga.”

Went the Day Well’s first step will be the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at the
Spa on July 28, the main local prep for the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on August 25.

Video by Megan Jones of Animal Kingdom and Went the Day Well training
together at Fair Hill on May 31 is available by clicking
here.

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