Call of the Wild - by Tom Dawson

So what would best describe your reaction to Animal Kingdom’s Kentucky Derby victory? Shock? Bewilderment? Disappointment?

All are plausible reactions. But one thing should be crystal. The best horse in the race was the winner.

Did I fancy him before the race? No, didn’t use him at all, but I like him now.

The field was among the most suspect in recent history, but that shouldn’t go against him. As they say, he can only beat those that are led up to face him. And he did in on the square. In twenty five years of covering the race, I can’t remember seeing fewer complaints in the losing jockey and trainer comments. For a 20-horse field, the race was remarkably clear and incident free.

The notable exception is Archarcharch. His stumble out the gate was the apparent cause of both the saddle slippage and cannon bone injury. Either of those would have been enough to compromise his performance.

Dialed In was also away somewhat slowly. But he’s a stone closer anyway. The real problem was dropping 18 lengths off a 48 3/5 half. I don’t think the break can totally be blamed for that. By contrast, the winner was 12th early, but never more than 6 1/4 lengths off the leader.

After suitable reflection, I think we should just offer cudos to the winner and go on. Although he has a grass pedigree, his distance numbers were among the best in the race. His trainer is an extraordinary horseman and his jock was, until Saturday, the best active rider to not have won the Derby.

It has been well documented that John Velazquez replaced Robby Albarado after he suffered a broken nose and facial lacerations in an accident at Churchill on Wednesday. We know that Animal Kingdom was first by 2 ½ lengths but in the line of the day, Associated Press writer Jim Litke said that Velazquez actually won by a nose.

Then there was the unexpected post race response from Barry Irwin, master of Team Valor, the partnership that owns Animal Kingdom. When NBC’s Bob Neumeier asked how he came to choose Graham Motion to be his trainer, Irwin said “I was just tired of other trainers lying to me and I wanted a guy who would tell me the truth.”

Wow, that’s a euphoric reaction to the biggest win of your professional career. When Irwin consolidated all of Team Valor’s horses in Motion’s barn late last year, he said it was because he wanted to deal with only one guy and preferred his horses to be based at a training center rather than the track. Nothing about liars.

Irwin’s only elaboration on his answer when asked how many trainers lied to him was “plenty.” By his own count Irwin has employed 40 trainers over the past five years. That’s a lot of folks caught under that umbrella of innuendo.

Maybe the right horse for Team Valor’s next purchase is Pants On Fire.

Sunland Park alums had mixed results in Derby week races. Sunland Derby winner Twice The Appeal split the field, finishing 10th. Local stakes winner Twelve Twenty Two stopped badly in the Humana Distaff.

Hopefully there is nothing amiss. Over at Pimlico, Sunland Derby third-place finisher Ruler On Ice grabbed the second spot in the Tesio Stakes.

But how about that Plum Pretty. The Sunland Park Oaks winner did the local filly race a great service with her gutty Kentucky Oaks victory. Trainer Bob Baffert’s response after the race was, “That was awesome. We hoped she'd run like that. She thought she was at Sunland Park.”

Now the question is whether she can do for the Sunland Oaks what Mine That Bird did for the Sunland Derby. When the Graded Stakes Committee meets to consider grades for 2011, they will be reminded that while Plum Pretty is the first Kentucky Oaks winner to exit Sunland. The race has produced numerous graded stakes winners since 2003.

Island Fashion,Tough Tiz’s Sis and Gabby’s Golden Gal all subsequently captured G1 stakes. Harissa is a G2 winner and Sky Mom captured a G3. Now, Plum Pretty. And hopefully, she’s far from done.

What a great Sunland Derby weekend it would be with a pair of graded stakes on offer.

So now the attention turns to the Preakness. At this writing, only four Derby horses are pointing for the race.

They are Animal Kingdom, Mucho Macho Man, Shackleford and Dialed In. All will be running for a $1 million purse but Dialed In has much more at stake.

By virtue of winning the Holy Bull and the Florida Derby, he is eligible for the $5.5 million Magna bonus.

That’s $5 million to owner Bob LaPenta , who’ll just spend it on more horses. The trainer gets $500,000. I guess they figure the owner will take care of the jock. Look for Nick Zito to wind Julien Leparoux’s pace clock.

A chance at the Triple Crown, a high-dollar bonus and several new faces. Oh, and the opportunity to party with Kegasus. The Preakness awaits.