John Velazquez Scratched the Morning Before the Race Due to an Intestinal Ailment
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ANIMAL KINGDOM / CONNECTIONS so you live for days like this. It’s wonderful ness. Bandoroff eventually joined them (Real Quiet) was going cheap, so Baffert to have my whole family here.” and was “the hands-on guy as far as rais- took a shot.” Bandoroff, 56, and his wife own Denali ing and selling the horses,” Weisbord told Denali also gained fame in the Thor- Stud, the approximately 700-acre Central The Blood-Horse in 2002. oughbred business as the home of Serena’s Kentucky nursery near Paris where Ani- The couple returned to Kentucky in Song, who won 11 grade I events and was mal Kingdom was foaled and raised. They 1986 and Bandoroff ran the sales opera- 1995’s champion 3-year-old filly. Sent by also were members of the Team Valor In- tion for Crystal Springs, a farm started by the late Bob Lewis and his wife, Beverly, to ternational partnership that bred the colt, former Hollywood Park chairman R.D. the Bandoroffs’ farm following her retire- but that venture was dissolved. Hubbard and the late Edward Sczesny. ment from racing, Serena’s Song has pro- After Animal Kingdom brought In 1990 the Bandoroffs leased barns from duced English group I and French group $100,000 when consigned to the 2009 Crystal Springs and launched Denali III winner Sophisticat, grade II winners Keeneland September yearling sale by Stud. Their clients included both Hub- Grand Reward and Harlington, grade III Denali, as agent, the Bandoroffs joined bard and Weisbord. winner Schramsberg, and added-money the new partnership formed by his winner Serena’s Tune. buyer, Team Valor founder and chief ex- “Craig is an honest guy. Denali, as agent for the Lewises, sold So- ecutive officer Barry Irwin, to race the I’ve known him for a long phisticat for $3.4 million to Demi O’Byrne son of Leroidesanimaux. at the 2000 Keeneland July select yearling “Barry and I have done business to- time and I just think he’s auction and another Serena’s Song off- gether probably 10 or 15 years,” Bandor- the greatest.” spring, Colourful Score, for $3.5 million to off said. “It’s been a long association. He Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock manag- always comes up with good horses and in BARRY IRWIN er, John Ferguson, at the 2005 Keeneland the racing partnership business, in my September yearling sale. opinion, he’s the best of them all.” In 2004, Denali, again representing Earlier this year Denali and Team the Lewises, sold grade II winner Santa Valor formed a strategic alliance. Catarina (in foal to A.P. Indy) for $4.8 Team Valor boards all of its domestic million to Eaton Sales, agent, at the broodmares at Denali and sells all its Keeneland November breeding stock horses offered at public auction in this auction. country through the farm. In return, “We have a great team at Denali with the Bandoroffs are continuing to in- Gary Bush, Donnie Snellings, and The- vest in Team Valor’s racing and breed- resa Moore, and we’ve been blessed ing ventures and they also are work- with a lot of great clients who give us ing to involve some of their clients in quality horses,” Bandoroff said. “May 7 the partnerships. just happened to be Barry Irwin’s day. “Craig is an honest guy,” said Irwin But he’s just one of the many clients during a post-Derby press conference. who have supported us and we’re grate- “I’ve known him for a long time and I ful for every one of them.” just think he’s the greatest. I don’t like The Bandoroffs are members of the my horses’ lives being screwed around Team Valor partnership that owns with and Craig will do what I tell him Secret Heart, the dam of 2010 Breed- to. I respect Gary Bush (Denali’s farm ers’ Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IIT) winner manager/general manager) a ton. They O Pluck, but didn’t opt to keep their inter- I OR I raise a great horse at Denali.” D est in that colt. OE A New Jersey native, Bandoroff is J “I made a mistake with that one, a former jockey. Late in 1974, he was Craig Bandoroff but we stayed in on Animal Kingdom, among the top 10 riders in New Jersey, fortunately, even though we normally but a racing accident ended his career. A The Bandoroffs’ first close professional don’t race colts,” Bandoroff said. “He was a 2-year-old he was aboard, Old Frankfort, association with a Derby winner came in big, good-looking yearling and that didn’t tried to jump the inside rail at Garden 1998, when Real Quiet defeated Victory surprise me because his dam (Dalicia, State Park and when he failed, Bandoroff Gallop by a half-length. Two years previ- who was sold in England in 2009) was a flipped over the colt’s head and fell. Old ously, the couple had consigned Real Quiet really big, pretty mare.” Frankfort collapsed on Bandoroff, crush- to the Keeneland September yearling sale. Animal Kingdom captured the March ing the jockey’s right arm. Bob Baffert, who would later be elected to 26 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes (gr. III) on Bandoroff, who also suffered a punc- racing’s Hall of Fame, purchased the colt Turfway Park’s synthetic Polytrack sur- tured right lung, decided he was finished for Mike Pegram, paying only $17,000. face and even though he hadn’t run on with horses, but later changed his mind. A son of Quiet American, Real Quiet dirt, Bandoroff thought it was possible he After a long rehabilitation, he attended the won the Preakness (gr. I) and performed would be able to enjoy a Derby win with University of Virginia before transferring well enough to earn an Eclipse Award. But his family. to the University of Kentucky, where he Victory Gallop spoiled his Triple Crown “In a year when there were so many in- earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture bid in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I). juries and no standout, I thought he had a and also met his wife. “That was a different deal from Animal chance if he could handle the dirt,” Ban- 1 Bandoroff then took a job with Fasig-Tip- Kingdom,” Bandoroff said. “We didn’t doroff said. “I knew he would go the (1 ⁄4- ton in New York. His wife went to work for raise Real Quiet; we just sold him. He was mile) Derby distance and I knew (trainer) entrepreneur and publisher Barry Weis- very crooked. He toed out in one front Graham Motion had him ready. I said if he bord and served as his key assistant in op- leg a lot. When Baffert bought him, he did it, I wasn’t going to be shocked. But I erating Executive Bloodstock, a consulting probably wasn’t thinking he was buying was shocked he did it so easily. It was a and racehorse portfolio management busi- a Derby horse. He liked his body and he very special moment.” b BloodHorse.com ■ MAY 14, 2011 1329 BREEDER AND OWNER: TEAM VALOR INTERNATIONAL / TRAINER: H. GRAHAM MOTION / JOCKEY: JOHNANIMAL VELAZQUEZ KINGDOM BY STEVE HASKIN raham Motion stood outside Barn 22 the morning of the G$2,171,800 May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and admit- ted he had no idea what to expect from Team Valor International’s Animal Kingdom, who was about to make his first start on dirt. Motion was well aware that no horse had ever won the Derby making his dirt RICK SAMUELS debut. Animal Kingdom... and fate...bring together a winning team for Animal the Kentucky Derby Magnetism BloodHorse.com ■ MAY 14, 2011 1313 derby 1 37 “I just don’t know,” Motion said. “The known. And in between are the doors.” legitimate Triple Crown threat. statistics are all against him; I feel good Later that evening Animal Kingdom But most of all, his victory unleashed a about running the horse, but it’s such an burst through one of those doors, and flood of emotions, a great deal of it result- unknown. I love the horse, I love the way awaiting him on the other side was Ken- ing from the improbable victory by John he worked over the dirt, and I love his at- tucky Derby immortality. By powering Velazquez and the unusual circumstanc- titude. He’s got everything going for him. down the Churchill Downs stretch to es that led to his winding up on Animal 3 It’s just that unknown.” a 2 ⁄4-length victory in front of a record Kingdom. But as Jim Morrison said, “There are crowd of 164,658, the unknown had be- In the past three years Velazquez has things known, and there are things un- come known. Racing had a new star and a seen his Derby favorite Quality Road with- drawn a week before the race because of a quarter crack, the heavy Derby favorite “What can you do? It’s part of racing. One year Eskendereya withdrawn several days be- we’ll win it when we least expect it.” fore the Derby with a career-ending injury, and this year’s early favorite Uncle Mo JOHN VELAZQUEZ scratched the morning before the race due to an intestinal ailment. Although disappointed and frustrated, Velazquez understood that this sport can rip your heart out at any time and you have to learn to come to terms with it. “What can you do? It’s part of racing,” Velazquez said later on Derby eve in the quiet of the backstretch.