It’s been a fortnight since the Kentucky Derby, and later today we’ll get to see Animal Kingdom bid for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Racecourse in Maryland. Barring his groom and trainer, I don’t think anyone has spent more time with Animal Kingdom than our friend Alex Brown, who we spoke to right before the Derby about his fabulous book, Greatness and Goodness: Barbaro and his Legacy, so who better to talk to for all the scoop? I spoke with Alex earlier this week. The Preakness will run just after 6PM ET.
Q: Why do you think Animal Kingdom was such a surprise when he won the Kentucky Derby?
Alex: I think people overlooked him for a couple of reasons. One was that he was a little lightly raced; his campaign going into the Derby I would label unorthodox. He hadn’t raced for six weeks prior to the Derby so that sets a historical precedent. If you remember, Barbaro won the Derby off a five week break, and he was the first horse to do that for fifty of sixty years.
Q: Was that intentional, or by circumstance?
Alex: Yes, that was intentional on (trainer) Graham Motion’s part. He ran him in the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park, it’s six weeks out from the Derby so his choice would then be to run him back three weeks later to then run him again three weeks later in the Derby, or wait. You can absolutely train up to a race off a six week break, it’s just apparently some people think it’s not possible which is ridiculous! With a good horse, and if you know how to get them fit, you don’t have to use races to do that. So I think Animal Kingdom was overlooked for those reasons, but also the fact that he never raced on the dirt. He had one work at Churchill prior to the Derby which by all accounts was very, very good. In the team, the Motion Camp was pretty confident about the horse, but obviously the confidence wasn’t in the general public, he went off at 20-1.
Dave Rock, Assistant Trainer
I saw Dave Rock, Graham’s assistant, that morning, with the horse, jogging onto the track, and they were pretty confident. Dave is a pretty quiet guy, but I could tell he thought they had a pretty good shot.
Q: You must have been delighted that the Derby winner has spent the last couple of weeks practically on your doorstep, and you’ve been able to keep the rest of the world abreast of his every step!
Alex: It’s obviously great for me for a couple of reasons: One is that I’m a big believer in a training centre like FairHill and what it can do for horses, so having the Derby winner here preparing for the Preakness is great, it’s great for the area. I don’t think you can get the same sense in Kentucky because it’s just a much bigger horsey environment, but everyone here is rooting for Graham Motion, it doesn’t matter who it is, they don’t even have to know anything about horses, everyone’s very excited. Plus it’s great for the people involved.
Graham Motion is simply a high quality dude! He’s just an all round super-nice guy, a great horseman, very humble, everything you could want from a human being, so from both those perspectives it’s great. Then to be able to see Animal Kingdom train every day is an absolute pleasure. In the first instance, I’m a fan of horses so when you get to see the Derby winner train every day that’s just a good thing.
Q: How does he look?
Alex: He looks great. He looks really good; he’s training well, the team seem confident in the way he’s going. We’ll see. I’ve talked to Graham a little bit about this – because they’re not working him in between races, it’s just a short time frame between the Derby and the Preakness, we really won’t know until the race how well the horse is doing, but all the reasonable cues that we look for as horsemen in our horses are very positive – he’s eating well, his coat looks good, he’s moving well on the training track, he’s alert and sharp. There’s nothing that would suggest that he’s not ready to run another big race.
Animal Kingdom returning to the barn after training
Q: It seems like he must be pretty well settled in, and I imagine the routine, the groom, exercise rider etc, they all stay as much the same as possible?
Alex: He’d never been to FairHill before so this is new to him, but that being said it’s such a lovely place for a horse to relax and ease into their environment so it is home for him now, and he won’t leave here and ship to Pimlico until early saturday morning. He’s doing super well here, and this will now be his base for his future campaign, but prior to this he’s been in Florida and Kentucky.
Q: Does Graham Motion have a steeplechase background?
Alex: Yes, and in fact my recollection is that he worked for Jonathan Sheppard for a number of years and looked after the horse called Flatterer who was a champion steeplechase horse. He was then an assistant to Bernie Bond, a trainer down in Maryland and then started training on his own from there. His assistant trainers, Adrian Rolls and David Rock have been with Graham pretty much from the get-go. One thing Graham does very well is build a great team, of which Dave and Adrian are fundamental aspects, along with his wife Anita.
Graham Motion talking to the media.
Q: I noticed on your twitter feed today that you said Animal Kingdom had a gate school this morning (thursday). Why would he need that?
Alex: They all do. Before a big race, pretty much any horse will gate school. You want your horse to be as quiet as possible in the gate before the gate breaks open in a race, that way they break the best. It’s a myth that you want a horse all standing on it’s toes, alert and ready – you want them very quiet. You’ll see most horses preparing for a big race gate school a day or two out from the race. When I worked for Steve Asmussen we gate schooled our horses every week; every week, one day a week each horse would go to the gate no matter which horse it was, and that would include horses like Rachel Alexandra or Curlin. It’s just a normal thing to do. It’s also a bit of a different thing to do, instead of galloping a mile and a half every day, if you take them to the gate one day a week it gives them something different to think about.
Q: Who could be at threat to Animal Kingdom in the Preakness?
Alex: I don’t know to be honest! I think one thing about Animal Kingdom’s win in the Derby is that I don’t think any of the horses behind him had an excuse. Last year Looking at Lucky had a pretty good excuse as the Derby favourite getting beaten, and he came back and justified his Derby favouritism by winning the Preakness, but I think Animal Kingdom won pretty fair and square. Nor do I think that the new horses coming in are particularly any better than what went in the Derby, in fact I don’t think they’re better at all. They do have an advantage because they’re fresh, so one of them might actually step up and run really well. However, if Animal Kingdom runs his race, I’m really excited, I think he’s got a really good chance of winning. It’s a fourteen horse field so there’s certainly no guarantees.
Q: Does drawing post # 11 have any bearing?
Alex: I don’t think it makes any difference. If he was buried right on the inside in the one hole then it might not be so good, but I think with his running style, I wouldn’t worry about the 11 post at all.
Q: Will you be at the Preakness?
Alex: I’m planning to be. My current plan is to leave FairHill early Saturday morning and to follow the horse van down, that way I can take some pictures of him when he arrives at the track and so on and so forth, but I haven’t absolutely committed yet. We’re only an hour north of Pimlico.
Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin
Q: Are you nervous about Saturday? You’ve spent the last two weeks following Animal Kingdom pretty closely, and it’s the five year anniversary of Barbaro’s injury, does that affect you at all?
Alex: I’m very excited. If Animal Kingdom wins on Saturday it will just be absolutely fantastic. I’m excited that it’s a distinct possibility. I’m nervous, yes, but nervous in an excited way!
Q: What about your future plans?
Alex: No idea! Clearly we’re living in the moment right now, just rooting for this horse to run very well and hopefully win the Preakness.
Alex is not alone in wishing Animal Kingdom well at Pimlico. These are Good Luck cards made by second graders at Southside Elementary School in Cynthiana, Kentucky.
Thank you again to Alex for his time, and for all the photos in this article. You can follow him on twitter at @AlexBrownRacing for every last detail of Animal Kingdom’s schedule, pictures, and other racing news. Wishing all the jockeys and horses today safe runs, but crossing my fingers that Animal Kingdom finishes in front! Thank you for reading, go and place your bets and buy a copy of Alex’s book if you didn’t already, I promise you won’t regret it. Go racing, and eventing!
This article is also published on SamanthaLClark.com
