Animal Kingdom Wins!

Team Valor International’s Animal Kingdom, ridden by John Velazquez, ran past Nehro in mid-stretch and pulled away to a 2 ¾-length victory to win the 137th running of the $2,171,800 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (GI) before a record crowd of 164,858 on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs.

Read the Full Recap Below

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Trainer

H. Graham Motion

Graham captured the 137th Kentucky Derby with Team Valor's Animal Kingdom who would also go on to run second in the Preakness Stakes. Motion, a native of Cambridge, England, moved to the United States at age 16 with his father who was a United States representative for the British sales company Tattersalls. He worked for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard before taking out his own trainer's license and has saddled over 1,000 winners. // Full Bio...

Jockey

John Velazquez

John Velazquez has ridden in twelve editions of the Kentucky Derby. He won the 2011 Kentucky Derby aboard Animal Kingdom. He won the 2004 Kentucky Oaks with Ashado, who would win the Eclipse Award for top Three-Year-Old filly in 2004 and in 2005 won for Top Older Female. Known as Johnny V around the racetrack, he attended a jockey school in his native Puerto Rico before coming to North America under the guidance of retired Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero. He began riding races in New York in March 1990, and is ranked amongst the leading jockeys on the circuit. // Full Bio...

Owner

Team Valor International

Team Valor International earned their first Kentucky Derby victory in 2011 with homebred Animal Kingdom who would go on to finish second in the Preakness Stakes. Team Valor International is a syndicate race horse ownership group under the leadership of Barry Irwin. They have started 4 horses in the Kentucky Derby, prior to Animal Kingdom's win, their top finisher was Captain Bodgit who ran second in 1997. // Full Bio...

2001-Present

Current Era

2001 - Growth of the Kentucky Derby continued on all fronts as the 127th running attracted a crowd of 154,210, the second largest attendance in Derby history. Overall Derby Day wagering (all sources) rose to a record $107,598,904. For the first time in Derby pari-mutuel wagering history, all horses ran uncoupled with no entries or mutuel fields as betting interests.

#	Contender	Jockey	Trainer	Owner
1	Animal Kingdom	John Velazquez	H. Graham Motion	Team Valor International
2	Nehro	Corey Nakatani	Steve Asmussen	Zayat Stables
3	Mucho Macho Man	Rajiv Maragh	Kathy Ritvo	Reeves Thoroughbred Racing & Dream Team Racing Stable
4	Shackleford	Jesus Castanon	Dale Romans	Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge
5	Master of Hounds	Garrett Gomez	Aidan O'Brien	Mrs. John Magnier
6	Santiva	Shaun Bridgmohan	Eddie Kenneally	Tom Walters
7	Brilliant Speed	Joel Rosario	Tom Albertrani	Live Oak Plantation
8	Dialed In	Julien Leparoux	Nick Zito	Robert LaPenta
9	Pants on Fire	Anna "Rosie" Napravnik	Kelly Breen	George and Lori Hall
10	Twice the Appeal	Calvin Borel	Jeff Bonde	Edward "Rusty" Brown, Victor Flores, Henry Hernandez
11	Soldat	Alan Garcia	Kiaran McLaughlin	Harvey Clarke & W Craig Robertson III
12	Stay Thirsty	Ramon Dominguez	Todd Pletcher	Repole Stable
13	Derby Kitten	Javier Castellano	Mike Maker	Ken and Sarah Ramsey
14	Decisive Moment	Kerwin Clark	Juan Arias	Just for Fun Stables (Ruben Sierra)
15	Archarcharch	Jon Court	William H Fires	Robert and Val Yagos
16	Midnight Interlude	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	Arnold Zetcher
17	Twinspired	Mike Smith	Mike Maker	Alpha Stables, Skychai Racing, and Sand Dollar Stables
18	Watch Me Go	Rafael Bejarano	Kathleen O' Connell	Gilbert Campbell
19	Comma to the Top	Patrick Valenzuela	Peter Miller	Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Kevin Tsujihara

Kentucky Derby 137 Race Recap

The previous attendance record for a Kentucky Derby was established in 1974 when 163,628 were on hand for Cannonade’s victory in the 100th Run for the Roses.

The Kentuckky Derby victory was the first in the 13 tries for Velazquez and the first for trainer Graham Motion who had had two previous Derby starters. Velazquez picked up the mount from Robby Albarado, who was injured Wednesday when he was kicked in the face by a horse prior to a race.

Velazquez had been the regular rider of Uncle Mo, the second choice in the morning line odds for the Derby before that colt scratched from the race on Friday by his owner.

Shackleford, ridden by Jesus Castanon, led the field through fractions of :23.74, :48.63 and 1:13.40 with Comma to the Top in closest pursuit along with Decisive Moment, Pants On Fire, Soldat andNehro stacked up right behind. Further back, Animal Kingdom was racing off the pace and in the clear.

As the field turned for home, Nehrowent after Shackleford who had disposed of his early pursuers and the two hit the top of the stretch together with Animal Kingdommoving seven-wide into the stretch only a few lengths back.

Nehro passed Shackleford at the eighth pole, but by that time Animal Kingdom was alongside. The winner pushed clear at the eighth pole and completed the mile and a quarter distance in 2:02.04 over a fast track. Nehro held second by a neck over Mucho Macho Man who finished three-quarters of a length in front of Shackleford.

Animal Kingdom is a Kentucky-bred son of Leroidesanimaux out of the Acatenango (GER) mare Dalicia (GER). The victory was worth $1,411,800 and increased Animal Kingdom’s earnings to $1,738,700.

Animal Kingdom returned $43.80, $19.60 and $13. Nehro returned $8.80 and $6.40 withMucho Macho Man returning $7 to show.

Robert LaPenta’s Dialed In, the $5.20-to-1 favorite trained by two-time Kentucky Derby winner Nick Zito, finished eighth.

Completing the field in order behind Shackleford were Master of Hounds, Santiva, Brilliant Speed, Dialed In, Pants On Fire, Twice the Appeal, Soldat, Stay Thirsty, Derby Kitten,Decisive Moment, Archarcharch, Midnight Interlude, Twinspired, Watch Me Go andComma to the Top.