Madison's Tom And Julie Furey, Part Owners Of Animal Kingdom, Celebrate After Kentucky Derby Win, Looking Forward To Preakness

On their way home to Madison from Florida, Tom and Julie Furey stopped by Kentucky for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

But they had a little more at stake than most of the people betting on their favorites. As members of the Team Valor partnership that owns Animal Kingdom, they were excited to see how their horse would run. Tom Furey said Monday he knew Animal Kingdom could win. But would he?

"I had no doubt he could win. It's the Derby I had doubts about. It's notorious. You have 19 to 20 horses in there bumping around. You could get blocked. Traditionally, the best horse does not always win. Sometimes it's the luckiest horse," Furey said. "But in this case the best horse won."

Indeed. Animal Kingdom, ridden by jockey John Velazquez, blew past the competition and cruised to a 2 3/4 length victory before a crowd of more than 164,800 screaming fans. At least one of those fans, Julie Furey, screamed so loud and so long that she lost her voice.

"It was so exciting," she said Monday during a phone call to her Madison business Julian's Interior's. She was talking with her friend Charlene Denhardt of Clinton, who also works as a decorator at Julian's Interiors. Charlene put Julie on to talk with Patch. "So exciting, but it's really Tom's thing. Here, talk with Tom."

"I had a lot of faith in this horse," he said. "We brought him along carefully."

After Animal Kingdom qualified for a gate at the Kentucky Derby by winning the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes in late March in Florence, KY, the team decided to rest him. "We rested him six and a half weeks. We knew we wanted him to be fresh for the Derby."

Furey gave credit to jockey John Velazquez for holding Animal Kingdom until the final 1/8th mile. "This horse has an explosive turn of foot. If you time it correctly, he will blow away any field," Furey said.

Still, Furey said, most of the credit goes to the horse. He said this is the fifth jockey that has ridden Animal Kingdom in as many races. "That tells you something about the horse," Furey said.

Furey said the celebration afterward was "bedlam."

"My wife screamed so much she lost her voice, the celebration was surreal. We have twenty partners and it was all of us, and our signficant others and the children in the winners circle."

After the wreath of roses was placed on the horse, Furey said Velazquez started picking off flowers and throwing them to the women. After that, Churchill Downs hosted a celebration at a nearby racing museum. "It was quite the gala spread," he said.

And today, Monday, after all the celebrating is done, Tom and Julie are back on the road, heading back to Connecticut, with their three Scottie dogs tucked in the back seat along with all of Julie's hat boxes. When they get home, they'll be met by the little jockey outside their front door, dressed in Team Valor's colors, and holding balloons in Team Valor's colors, placed there by their friend Wendy Denhardt, Charlene's daughter, who keeps an eye on the house for them while they are away. "We want it to be all cheerful for them when they get back," she said Monday.

And after that?

"Back to Madison for us for a while," Tom Furey said. But only for about twelve days. "And then we get ready to go to the Preakness in Baltimore."

The 136th running of the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore, Maryland, is May 21st.