Kentucky Derby Rose Petal

patdouglas22

I hope this is the proper place for this as sports memorabilia.

I have an actual rose petal from Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom's rose garland preserved in a display glass. I work in lexington, KY and the owner of the horse had a few of these made up and given to their associates. They gave me one at the end of the year.

There's nothing out there really to compare it to so I was looking to get an idea of value. Don't really even know what getting it appraised would entail.

Any thoughts?

epislash

Can't really help, but very cool.

lseecon

I am a horse racing fan, but certainly no expert on racing memorabilia so this is just my opinion and I could be completely wrong, however, I dont really see much, if any, value to the piece. Its nice to display if you are an Animal Kingdom fan, but I really cant see it being more than $20. If it were the horse's saddlecloth, its reigns, or the jockey's whip or silks then you have might have some value. But its just a rose pedal encased in lucite. Also, the horse, Animal Kingdom is not really a fan favorite or anything. Nice horse, but his only real claim to fame is winning the Kentucky Derby. No Secretariat.
Hope for your sake I am wrong though about the value.

baz518

Not sure about value, but pretty cool piece. I'm up in Louisville, but I do like visiting Lexington (went to UK a while back and go up for training about once a year) and LOVE the Derby! It's almost that time of year again.

dontippet

Don't know value, but if you are wanting to sale it, the only time to sale it would be on Derby weekend.

DanBessette

What a cool, unique piece!

esquiresports

Welcome to the boards! There is a good story behind this, so to a fan of the horse, there is some value. My best guess is $50 or less. Cool piece though.

patdouglas22

Thanks for the replies folks!

Nah I hadn't really planned to sell it unless I was missing something on the value. I am in neYou are right about Animal Kingdom being ordinary in the grand scheme of things. I think you all are probably spot on.

MooseDog

Besides the Kentucky Derby, ANIMAL KINGDOM won the world's richest race, the Dubai World Cup in March 2013. He also finished 2nd in the 2012 Breeder's Cup Mile to WISE DAN, who was merely the US Horse of the Year in both 2012 and 2013 and has proven to be nearly unbeatable at the mile distance. AK retired with $8,399,884 in earnings which currently stands 8th on the all-time money won list. This was no ordinary race horse.

AK is well liked in horse racing circles in no small part due to his owner and trainer. As horse racing has gotten a well-deserved bad reputation, both Team Valor (Barry Irwin) and trainer H. Graham Motion are considered "squeaky clean" and "the good guys" and those of us who love the sport are very, very happy of their success with this horse.

There are probably a lot of Kentucky Derby rose petals from the winner's garland pressed between book pages out there, but you have one with great provenance. Kentucky Derby winner's are particularly collectible and think your piece easily appraises at $50-100.

If AK turns out to be a successful sire, then that value only increases, but he won the Derby, they can never take that away.