Sights set on Dubai World Cup as Animal Kingdom recovers
The horse had two screws inserted into hind leg, trainer says
Elkton, Maryland: A ‘get well soon' card awaits Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom when he returns to trainer Graham Motion's barn at the sprawling Fair Hill Training Centre after a successful surgery to his left hind leg.
Motion told Gulf News during a visit to Fair Hill, which is just about 32km from Delaware which hosts the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (Group 3) Cup for Arabians today, that the three-year-old son of Leroidesanimaux had screws inserted to heal the injury, which he said occurred at the start of the Belmont Stakes on June 8.
"Animal Kingdom will run in the Dubai World Cup and that has been the target after he won the Derby," confirmed Motion who had taken his 2004 Breeder's Cup Turf winner Better Talk Now to the Dubai Sheema Classic (Group 1) in 2008 where he finished ninth.
"We have not yet decided whether to give him a prep race here or a prep race in Dubai or to go without a prep race. I don't know yet and they have a programme in Dubai where you arrive ten days before the race. I think we have to either be there a month before or a week before," he said.
Commenting on the injury, Motion said, "He clipped his heels at the start and I'm pretty sure that's when the injury occurred. It would have healed by itself but we wanted to put a time line to the healing process. The two screws inserted will now hasten that process and we are sure when he will be ready while in the natural healing process we would have to just wait. That's why we went in for the surgery," said Motion, who has been based in Fair Hill for about six years now.
Therapy training
"Animal Kingdom will not be doing much for about two months. We have an Aqua Treadmill here so it will be very therapeutic training. It may be more than 90 days before he starts training and our aim right now is the Dubai World Cup," he said.
A Newmarket horseman but now based in the US Motion saddled Animal Kingdom, who had previously never competed on dirt, to win the 137th Kentucky Derby by two lengths from Nehro.
The victory was Motion's first in the Derby, the most prestigious dirt race in the US.
Motion said he was now looking forward to competing for the world's richest purse (Dh36.7 million) at Meydan racecourse next year. "I spent a week [in Dubai] when I took Better Talk Now and I would love to do it again. I think it is a tremendous opportunity and an amazing experience. I am looking forward to racing in Meydan," he said.
