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The latest World Thoroughbred Rankings rate Animal Kingdom better than the best colts in a group that respected form analyst Dominic Beirne describes as "one of the two greatest seasons of Australian three-year-olds in the modern era."

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE created a commemorative envelope for Animal Kingdom thanks to some promotional assistance from AK partner Norton Herrick. Partners can order them from Amy Collingsworth (amy@teamvalor.com) for a discounted rate of $6, a $4 savings from the retail price at the post office. No wonder they are going broke! Barry Irwin and Norton Herrick were on site for the unveiling of the attractive envelope that is part of the USPS's historic series that also features Barbaro.

Animal Kingdom became the first horse trained in America to win the World Cup on Tapeta last week and the performance has resulted in Sheikh Mohammed purchasing a 29 per cent interest in the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner.

True to its billing, as a World Cup, the 18th running of the richest horserace on the planet offered fresh courage and inspiration to those determined that frontiers should no longer be perceived as barriers. Over the past couple of years, they have endured dispiriting retrenchment by insular forces on either side of the Atlantic. In the United States, brave attempts to fill in a moat of drugs and dirt seem to have been defeated, for now, by vested interests. In Britain, meanwhile, momentous opportunity and investment have been dissipated by misapprehensions that seem barely less parochial. The champion who united the attention of both cultures on Saturday, however, offers a wholesome reproof to each.

Animal Kingdom's Kentucky Derby triumph resonated as the deciding factor in the most dramatic category at the 41st Eclipse Awards ceremony on Monday night in Beverly Hills, as the Team Valor International home-bred prevailed as champion 3-year-old male of 2011.

BELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Rajiv Maragh on Sunday will begin serving a seven-day suspension for a careless riding infraction for the incident at the start of last Saturday's Belmont Stakes. The suspension, handed down by the three New York stewards, was originally 10 days but was reduced to seven after Maragh waived his right of appeal.

Now what? That was what horse owners and trainers who survived the Triple Crown were thinking Sunday in the wake of Ruler on Ice's improbable victory in the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes. With long-shot winners in each of the three legs of the series, the 3-year-old division is still in search of a champion.

If one image sums up the scrambled state of this year's three-year-old division, it's Animal Kingdom's clipping heels in the opening strides of Saturday's Belmont Stakes, eliminating his chances before the real running even started. The same tired theme has repeated itself all season: a talented colt, on the verge of solidifying his status as the leader of the classic generation, was tripped up -- only this time, it happened literally and not just figuratively.

Animal Kingdom finished a hard-charging second in the Preakness Stakes. He was within a half a length of Shackleford at the finish and he was closing fast. He had no excuse for the result.

With Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom a go for the Belmont Stakes in two weeks, attention shifts to whether Preakness Stakes winner Shackleford will run in the final leg of the Triple Crown.

BALTIMORE — Animal Kingdom won't be sneaking up on anyone — even coming from behind. The colt who came out of nowhere to win his first race on dirt in the Kentucky Derby is favored [...]