You’re looking live, at the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, home of the white Lipizzaner horses. This was the Pet Stop for the most recent leg of the Amanxing Race 3!

I’m Phil Kiwi, with my co-host Koko the Talking Gorilla, and since we’re at the halfway point of this exciting race around the animal world, we thought we’d review the first six legs of the Amanxing Race. How are our international pairs getting along?

Without a doubt, the breakout stars of the Amanxing Race 3 have been the Lemurs from Madagascar, Joey and Larry.

Their humorous outlooks on life have kept our Racers laughing during even the toughest parts of the Race. Our crew and special guest stars have enjoyed their antics, too.

Here, in footage you didn’t see, I’m trying to interview Sean Connery in Scotland while Joey dances around in the back.

And here’s Larry, doing the Move it Move it dance in an attempt to prevent Bella from sleeping:

Speaking of Racers without tails, I admit, we were worried about how Monty and Holly would handle the demands of the Race – after all, they’re used to traveling on yachts and private jets, with MI5 protection. But they’ve so far performed well and haven’t pulled rank yet. They do love camera time, though, and here is the duo, posing for their fans:

Another fan favorite pair has been the donkey father and daughter, Ibrahim and Omara. Who could forget Omara re-creating the Bremen Town Musicians statue?

Our Amanxing Race repeaters, Hercules and Maxx, are running well and show no signs of slowing down, even if they are eating on the run:

Snow monkeys Akira and Toshiro - the first team eliminated - went on a romp throughout each of the airports they visited, including this one:

Bella and Douglas, despite Bella’s lack of eating, are also performing well and know how to conserve their energy while waiting for their flights to leave.

Art lovers, like the little girl below, were entertained by our hippo team of Bela and Victoria, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:

That hasn’t been the case for our bull papa and son from Spain, Ernesto and Fermin, who spent a few of the early Pet Stops playing chase games with the corgis and tiring themselves out. Fermin also tends to overdo things on the tasks and often gets four-stomach aches.

But the sheer strength of the bulls has allowed them to perform well in the Race. We thought you’d like to see a few shots from their audition tape. Here’s Fermin peeking into the camera:

and here is Ernesto leading the way last July in Pamplona:

We’ve certainly had some memorable tasks – Racers have had to pull carts, carry buckets, push Viking ships, search for clovers, and slide around the ice. This last one was a task our penguins, Burgess and Meredith, were born to do, but it wasn’t without some tension. Watch here as Meredith slaps Burgess into the ice!

But the most memorable moment of the first half of the Amanxing Race 3 was the courageous decision by the Havana racers, Desi and Celia, to seek asylum at the United States Embassy in Vienna.

We thought you’d like to know that they will be staying with the Goizueta family (and Pierre) in Madrid while waiting for their United States pet visas to come through. Here they are, recalling their good times with fellow Amanxing Racers Ibrahim and Omara, at Madrid's Don Quixote memorial.

After Madrid, they’ll fly to Naples to stay with their new family, the Daleys.

We’ve traveled through three continents, and the rest of the world now awaits our Amanxing Racers. Tune in again, same race-time, same race-channel, as the adventure continues!

WRITTEN BY BECKY BANFIELD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DAVE HUNTER & BELLA T. MANX
Inspired by The Amazing Race on CBS