Animal Kingdom: prototype of the 21st century thoroughbred

Among the substantial media coverage of Animal Kingdom’s Dubai World Cup victory, this UK story places his imperious performance in the wider context of horse-racing’s battle to rise above short-sighted vested interests and become a truly international sport:

Animal Kingdom supreme beyond all borders

Chris McGrath, The Independent, UK

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….

….As such, Animal Kingdom is a prototype for the 21st-century international thoroughbred….

Read the full story here .