Animal Kingdom, Toby's Corner Arrive in Florida

1/11/2012 3:54 PM | horseracingnation.com

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Last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom, arrived at Palm Meadows Training Center Wednesday morning, along with Toby’s Corner, the 2011 Wood Memorial winner.

Trainer Graham Motion had been training the two major-stakes winning 4-year-olds at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, where the unseasonably warm and snow-free weather allowed him to keep them close to home for longer than anticipated.

“It looked like it was going to be a nasty week,” said Motion from his Fair Hill base. “I thought we would be better off to get them down there and not have to worry about it.”

Motion will no longer have the luxury of daily contact with Animal Kingdom but had absolutely no qualms about sending his Derby winner to Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Boynton Beach.

“He won the Kentucky Derby last year and I didn’t have (daily contact),” Motion said. “(Assistant trainer) David Rock was with him from this time last year all the way through the Triple Crown, so he knows him very well.”

The major goal for Animal Kingdom, who finished second in a turf allowance at Gulfstream last March, is the Dubai World Cup on March 24. The Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap on Feb. 11 is a strong possibility for his 2012 return.

Motion has been impressed with Animal Kingdom since he returned to training.
“I think physically, he’s a bigger, stronger animal that he was last year,” said Motion, whose stable star hasn’t run his being injured in the Belmont Stakes in June.

Toby’s Corner is unraced since winning the Wood Memorial in April due to a hind leg injury.

“He’s on the same schedule as Animal Kingdom, or maybe a little ahead of him,” Motion said.

Toby's Corner | Animal Kingdom | H. Graham Motion | Gulfstream Park