Animal Kingdom entered in Saturday allowance

By: SPORTS NETWORK

 

Hallandale Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Champion colt Animal Kingdom will begin his four-year-old campaign on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The Team Valor thoroughbred had been expected to start in a stakes race next week.

Trainer Graham Motion, who has been working the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner at Palm Meadows, has the horse in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on the turf.

"I'm very excited to get him back, and now that we've entered him I'm extremely anxious," Motion said. "I have been pleasantly surprised how quickly he's come around. I think he got a good base in him at Fair Hill before he came down here. Once he got down here we've gotten some serious works on the grass."

The colt was originally set to start in the Tampa Bay Stakes on the turf at Tampa Bay Downs on February 25.

Saturday's allowance race will be Animal Kingdom's first start since suffering a hairline fracture during the running of the Belmont Stakes. Prior to that he was second in the Preakness Stakes in addition to taking the Run for the Roses.

The four-year-old will break from the outside post in the six-horse field with his regular jockey John Velazquez in the saddle. Following this start Animal Kingdom will next race in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.

The race is carded as the fifth race on Saturday with a post-time of 2:30 p.m. (et).