Preliminary Beyer of 103 for Animal Kingdom

[Silver Charm]

Two more of those and we have a Triple Crown Winner!!

Giant run by this horse from the top of the stretch.

[miff]

A very generous Beyer of 103 considering the race was slow and over a glib surface. If TG would agree with Beyer, the fig comes up like TG -neg 2, which would make nice wallpaper.Not we\'ll hear the Kool aid drinkers bark about the huge top that AK will get and why he will bounce in the Preakness, if he comes out ok.

Legit win, over a group that lived up to it\'s previous commoness.Nice race by Nehro wide and game and MMM who tried every step of the way.Nothing good happened on the front end all day except for the Baffy firster.

MOH flashed very late inside and will be the sucker Belmont horse if he stays here.


Mike

[pizzalove]

I would be shocked and suspicious if this Beyer is over 100.  Considering the allowance non winners of 1 in the second race went faster for a mile and a sixteeth.  Winner was carrying only 5 pounds less.  Also was the thorograph figure a minus 2?  This is very impressive but how likely is a bounce in two weeks?

[miff]

\"Also was the thorograph figure a minus 2?\"


.....only if TG rates the race very close to Beyer,who had Nehro faster than TG going in.Projections off the first few will be different going in, TG vs Beyer. Nehro kinda pairing on Beyer,MMM forward from last Beyer.


Mike

[jimbo66]

Animal Kingdom ran a nice race over what may have become a closer\'s track late in the day yesterday.  The pace was extremely slow for Derby standards, with Shacklefords\'s suspect distance breeding on the sire side doing him in the last 1/8th of a mile.

Very tough horse to use IMO by any handicapping standard.,  Nice closing kick over synthetic track with grass breeding top and bottom.  Exacta and triple both significantly light.  20-1 over 9-1 in a 19 horse field with the winner being a tough horse to use should be more than $300.  

Give me a new shooter in the Preakness.  Hoping Asmussen sends Astrology in the Preakness.  Will be 3rd off the layoff, first time out chasing an extremely fast pace at 1 1/8, then getting an uncomfortable inside trip on a wet track going a 1 turn mile from a disadvantageous post. Forward move coming up next time out.

[alm]

Agree...congratulations to the winner, but I was most impressed by Nehro...don\'t know if he can run at this level in Baltimore, but he will be hard to beat if he does.

[Caradoc]

It would have been tough to use Giacomo and Mine That Bird off TG also, at least by comparing relative tops.  What those two and AK have in common however is that they all had the most favorable patterns coming into the race – some combination of pairs and tops in their final two preps.  With the benefit of hindsight, you can see how all of them were poised to improve in the Derby considering that they had all run some combination of those in their final two preps, and none of them looked overdeveloped from any 2yo stopping point.  On that basis, Nehro looked like a strong play yesterday and was my key, but I also used AK, MI, and AAA.

I was concerned over AK\'s pedigree as I didn\'t see much dirt in it.  Regardless, he trained well over the dirt and I trust Graham Motion completely, who is a trainer\'s trainer.