Queen Anne the plan for Animal Kingdom Animal Kingdom is likely to bow out of racing in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot before taking up stud duties in Australia. The impressive Dubai World Cup winner also holds an entry in the Prince of Wales's Stakes over a mile and a quarter at the Royal meeting, but connections are leaning towards the one-mile contest to help promote him as a stallion in the southern hemisphere. The five-year-old, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2011, is currently being housed at David Lanigan's stables in Lambourn in preparation for Royal Ascot under the scrutiny of his trainer Graham Motion. "We put him in both the Prince of Wales's and the Queen Anne. At the moment we would prefer the Queen Anne, but we are not going to rule the other race out," said Barry Irwin, founder member of breeders Team Valor, who are co-owners of the horse along with Arrowfield Stud and Sheikh Mohammed. "The trainer wants to train him and watch him see how he is doing and he will make a late decision. "We are leaning towards the Queen Anne for one main reason which is that the race is at a mile. The horse is going to stud in Australia where they prize speed above all. "We sold a majority interest in the horse to Arrowfield Stud, and John Messara, who is the owner of that stud, feels that if we won that race it would be more important to the breeders of that country. "The race is over a straight track which is something he has never done, so to compensate for the fact he's got no experience of that when we thought about which jockey to ride we went with John Velazquez. "He knows the horse better than anybody and he's won at Royal Ascot on the straight course (at the 2009 meeting on Jealous Again and Strike The Tiger, for Wesley Ward)." Animal Kingdom was given an entry this week in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown on July 6, but Irwin stressed that was purely as a precaution. "We only did that was as a back-up in case something happens and he was unable to go to Royal Ascot," said Irwin. "Royal Ascot will be his last race if he runs there. If he doesn't make it then there's the Eclipse as a back-up."
