Animal Kingdom Stakes
6 Furlongs Dirt Stake Purse $250.000 Open 3 Year Olds.
1st Control The Center Mb Stables Zayas E J 1:09.19
Two things were key here for this grade one winner, the draw which allowed a comfortable stalk and first run on those behind and the fact that he is a very good sprinter. Clearly happier over this shorter trip the problem came with his winning the Grade One Pharaoh as a two-year-old over a mile and sixteenth. Going to the lead that day from a car park draw he was so strong to the line that you would have got the impression that this was a horse that was going to relish the longer trips. Well, whilst it is true at HRP that can win over five furlongs and twelve furlongs they still seem to have a trip they are most consistent at and I think in this one’s case that trip is less than a mile. This was his fifth win from eleven starts and it didn’t take a genius to work out that with a perfect draw, the drop back in trip and the champion trainer in his corner that he was the likely winner, the only surprising thing was that the odds monkeys didn’t make him favourite.
2nd Majestic Heights Threshold Elliott S 1:09.36
On his form you would have put this one on the speed today but a quick look at the pace of this race compared to his other sprints quickly explains how this race engine works. In races where he has gone to the lead or stalk the pace has been slower but with today’s faster pace, he ran more of a closers race. I can tell you this one’s instructions have never changed so it gives a real insight as to how a horses ‘running style’ is somewhat circumstantial rather than being some personal preference or jockey instruction and a running style is simply determined by the pace of the race as decided by the race engine and other horses. So today he ran off the pace, similar in fact to how he ran in the Gotham last time when he beat the weakening Control The Center. Today however Control the Center was over a trip that suited him and though this horse still closed off well the winner never weakened like he did over the mile.
3rd Storm Sequence Team 7 Illusions Corrales G 1:09.48
I thought this one may have got over the top of them here but the draw in the end beat him as he traveled wide for the entire race and actually did very well to end up third after covering much more ground than the first two. I have the feeling that this one will be a force in the three-year-old sprints this year especially when the draw monster is kinder to him.
4th Son Of Mufasa Maxmillion Farm Rodriguez A R 1:09.56
A little one paced at the end he ran much better today in black type than he had done before and is clearly getting better.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded