Watch "Animal Kingdom" - A Horse With Ties To The Shoreline At Belmont This Saturday

Animal Kingdom, the winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby, has arrived in New York for Saturday's 143rd Belmont Stakes.

The horse, owned in part by Madison residents Tom and Julie Furey who are members of the Team Valor partnership, ran a strong half-mile training stretch under jockey John Velazquez in 47.76.

Tom Furey went down to watch Animal Kingdom’s final training mile.

“He handled the track very well,” Furey said.

Belmont should suit him just fine

According to Furey, Velazquez rode him for the first time in a training mile and said Animal Kingdom was effortless in the way he traveled.

“John only wanted to work him four furlongs but Animal Kingdom galloped out so strongly he actually went six furlongs before Johnny could pull him up,” Furey said. “I was concerned that the Preakness race may have taken some of the edge off him but he gives no indication that he has lost any sharpness. The 1.5 mile of the Belmont should suit him just fine. His German family thrived at the 1.5 distance so he should be bred to shine at that distance.”

“He was half-way running off with me,” said Velazquez in a statement this week. “I took him as slowly as I could. He got very competitive with the other horse."

Looking strong after his first run on the track

Animal Kingdom came to New York from Fair Hill, Maryland where his training center is based. His trainer Graham Motion said he looked strong after his first run on the track. 

“I thought it was super; Johnny said he did it all on his own,” Motion said in a statement. “He didn’t even ask him to gallop out. That's why I only wanted to go a half with him; I thought he would gallop out really strong. I don’t think it could have gone any better.”

Velazquez, who is based in New York, won the Belmont in 2007 with Rags to Riches.

Quirky race, quirky track

“It certainly makes me feel a lot better,” Motion said. “I don’t know, realistically, how much difference it really makes, but I have to think it does. This is his home track, and he’s won the race. It’s a very quirky race and a very quirky track ... I have to think it helps us.”

Motion said Animal Kingdom, who has won $1.9 million for Team Valor in six lifetime starts (3-3), is scheduled for a gate-schooling session or two prior to Saturday's race as well.

This year's Stakes, with a post time of approximately 6:36 p.m., will feature three horses who ran in all three legs of the Triple Crown, including Shackleford and Mucho Macho Man. After winning the Kentucky Derby, Animal Kingdom ran a huge race in the middle jewel of the triple crown, the Preakness, but came in very close second to Shackleford who held on to the lead from start to finish.

Animal Kingdom is bidding to become just the 12th horse in history to complete the Derby-Belmont double, a feat last accomplished by 1995’s 3-Year-Old Champion, Thunder Gulch. Others include

• Swale (1984)
• Bold Forbes (1976)
• Riva Ridge (1972)
• Chateaugay (1963)
• Needles (1956)
• Middleground (1950)
• Shut Out (1942)
• Johnstown (1939)
• Twenty Grand (1931)
• and Zev (1923)