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Motion pleased with Animal Kingdom, Alternation to skip Belmont

Posted: Sunday, May 29, 2011 5:02 PM

by Mike Curry

Trainer Graham Motion is pleased with Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Animal Kingdom, who will resume galloping Monday morning at Fair Hill Training Center in preparation for a planned start in the Belmont Stakes (G1).

Motion said the Leroidesanimaux (Brz) colt was “super” eight days after finishing second to Shackleford in the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course. Motion confirmed on Friday that Team Valor International’s Animal Kingdom will target the Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 11, provided everything goes well leading up to the 1 1/2-mile classic.

“He jogged today and he was rather full of himself,” said Motion from his Fair Hill base in Elkton, Maryland. “He’ll gallop tomorrow and have a week of galloping until he breezes next week.”

Animal Kingdom is slated to breeze on June 6, but Motion is not sure where the workout will take place.

“I kind of want to see how the weather will be,” he said. “In an ideal world, I would like to breeze him next Monday, but I don’t want to ship [to Belmont] and have to work him up there over a sloppy track.”

Trainer Dale Romans said Preakness winner Shackleford will be shipped out of Churchill Downs late Sunday and is scheduled to arrive on Monday morning at Belmont.

“He’ll be there early, but I have to check with the van guy later on about exactly when,” Romans said.

The Belmont Stakes lost a contender on Sunday when trainer Donnie Von Hemel withdrew Peter Pan Stakes (G2) winner Alternation from consideration. Von Hemel instead will target the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) on July 30 and the Travers Stakes (G1) on August 27 for the Distorted Humor colt.

“We just decided to not come to the Belmont,” said Von Hemel. “We thought we should give him a bit of a breather and point him towards races like the Jim Dandy and Travers.”

Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Mucho Macho Man returned to the track on Friday sporting a new set of glue-on shoes and is expected to join Animal Kingdom and Shackleford in contesting each of the three U.S. classics. The Macho Uno colt lost his left front shoe while finishing sixth in the Preakness and also threw a shoe when finishing third in the Louisiana Derby (G2).

Trainer Kathy Ritvo thinks she has the problem solved and said the Risen Star Stakes (G2) winner came out of the Preakness in good shape.

Mucho Macho Man returned to the track Friday morning with a new pair of glue-on front shoes as he is readied for the Belmont Stakes.

“I think we have the shoe situation under control for good,” Ritvo said. “There are still a lot of things we have to go through to get him to the Belmont, but right now, he looks great.

“Even in finishing sixth, he was beaten only seven lengths and I am pretty sure he ran the race with three shoes. I’m pretty sure he’s only going to get better.”

Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner Brilliant Speed will breeze again either Monday or Tuesday as he readies for the Belmont Stakes, trainer Tom Albertrani said.

“He’ll breeze again any day now,” said Albertrani, who sent the Dynaformer colt out for a five-furlong workout in 1:00.11 on May 23, his first breeze since finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby. “He came out of the Derby fine, and came back with a good minute work, so everything looks to be going well since he ran.”

Beaten by 5½ lengths by Animal Kingdom when seventh in the Kentucky Derby, Brilliant Speed has yet to win on conventional dirt track. At two, he finished fourth on dirt to eventual Grade 1 winner Boys At Tosconova in his debut at Belmont Park and then seventh in another maiden special weight race at Saratoga Race Course.

“He trains well over the dirt,” Albertrani said of the Live Oak Plantation homebred. “I guess that’s the only thing we still have to find out. Churchill Downs is a little bit different from the Belmont surface. I guess there’s always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind whether he’ll take to it, but I’d be pretty optimistic again. Going into the Derby, I felt good about his chances of handling the dirt, and I think he gets over it okay, so I’d be optimistic again.”

Master of Hounds, fifth in the Kentucky Derby for Irish-based trainer Aidan O’Brien is scheduled to be shipped from Europe to New York on June 7. He would then clear quarantine on June 9.