Curlin

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Curlin

Sire	Smart Strike
Grandsire	Mr. Prospector
Dam	Sherriff's Deputy
Damsire	Deputy Minister
Sex	Colt
Foaled	March 25, 2004
Country	United States
Colour	Chestnut
Owner	Racing partnership: Midnight Cry Stables, Stonestreet Farm
Trainer	Steve Asmussen
Record	11: 8-1-2
Earnings	$8,702,800
Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours
Major Racing Wins
Rebel Stakes (2007) Arkansas Derby (2007) Jockey Club Gold Cup (2007) Jaguar Trophy Handicap (2008) Dubai World Cup (2008) American Classics / Breeders' Cup wins: Preakness Stakes (2007) Breeders' Cup Classic (2007)
Racing Awards
Co-World Champion 3-Yr-Old (2007) American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse (2007) American Horse of the Year (2007)
Infobox last updated on: 05:29, Friday June 13, 2008 (UTC).

Curlin (foaled March 25, 2004 in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. His major racing wins include the 2007 Preakness Stakes, the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic, and the 2008 Dubai World Cup.

Curlin was sired by Smart Strike, a former star from the Sam-Son Farm racing team in Ontario, Canada and is a half-brother of 1991 Canadian Triple Crown winner, Dance Smartly. He is out of the mare Sherriff's Deputy, a daughter of Canadian Horse of the Year and two-time North American Champion sire, Deputy Minister.

The colt was named for Charles Curlin, an African-American slave from western Kentucky who fought for the Union Army with the United States Colored Troops in the American Civil War. One of his original owners, Shirley Cunningham, Jr. through his interest in Midnight Cry Stables, is Charles Curlin's great, great grandson.

1 Ownership
2 Three-Year-Old Campaign
3 Four-Year-Old Campaign
- 3.1 Dubai World Cup
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Ownership

Kentucky-based class-action lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. bought Curlin for $57,000 as a yearling through their Midnight Cry Stable. They sold controlling interest (80%) in the horse in February 2007 for a reported $3.5 million to a group composed of Jess Jackson, founder of Kendall-Jackson wines; Florida software entrepreneur Satish Sanan's Padua Stables; and George Bolton, an investment banker from San Francisco.

Since August 2007 Gallion and Cunningham Jr. have been in a Boone County, Kentucky jail pending trial on charges conspiracy, fraud and forfeiture after they kept $64 million in misappropriated funds after representing 418 people in the suit over the diet drug fen-phen that resulted in a $200 million settlement.^[1]

On November 1, 2007 , Judge William Wehr ruled the 20% interest in the colt owned by Gallion and Cunningham Jr. would be turned over to the more than 400 persons involved in a lawsuit over the diet drug fen-phen.^[2].

On November, 6, 2007 Jackson and Bolton confirmed that they bought-out the interest in the colt controlled by their partner Sanan's Padua Stables (29%).^[3]

On November 9, 2007 trainer Kenneth McPeek, who worked as a blood-stock agent and consultant for Midnight Cry Stable, filed suit in Circuit Court in Jefferson County, Kentucky alleging that the stable breached a contract calling for him to be paid a 5 percent finders fee commission on the purchase and selling price of Curlin and other racehorses, as well as other breeding rights.^[4]

On December 20, 2007 Stonestreet announced the private purchase of George Bolton's 20% stake in Curlin.^[5] The sale leaves Stonestreet Stables' Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, as co-owners of 80% of Curlin and the balance held by Midnight Cry Stables, which is tied up in a legal battle involving 418 people suing the horse's original owners over a legal settlement.

On January 22, 2008, Senior Judge Roger Crittenden in a one-sentence statement overruled the foreclosure motion filed by the plaintifs against their former attorneys for alleged mishandling their settlement in the prominent fen-phen diet drug class action lawsuit. The Blood Horse magazine further reported that according to attorneys representing Stonestreet Stable, they have "a first-right-of-refusal clause incorporated into the original sales agreement with Midnight Cry", should ever such a motion be ordered. ^[6]

[edit] Three-Year-Old Campaign

[edit] Maiden

Unraced at age two, in February of 2007 Curlin won a seven-furlong maiden race for three-year-olds by 12 ¾ lengths at Gulfstream Park in Florida after which he was purchased by a racing partnership headed by majority shareholder Jess Jackson of Stonestreet Farm. The partnership also included Padua Stables, George Bolton, and Midnight Cry Stables, Curlin's original owner.^[7]

[edit] Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby

Curlin went on to race at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas where in March, jockey Robby Albarado rode him to victory in the Rebel Stakes, and, in mid April, in the Arkansas Derby.^[8]

[edit] 133rd Kentucky Derby

Curlin was established as the morning line favorite by Churchill Downs official handicapper Mike Battaglia at 7-2 in spite of the fact that no horse had won the Derby with only 3 prior starts since 1915 (Regret), and no horse had won with no two-year-old preps since 1882.^[9] He was the second betting choice when the race went off. Breaking from post number 2 in a full field of 20 starters, Curlin finished 3^rd in to Street Sense and Hard Spun.

[edit] 132nd Preakness Stakes

Curlin won the 2007 Preakness Stakes on May 19, beating the Kentucky Derby winner and favorite Street Sense by a head. Curlin stumbled out from the gate but was able to maintain his balance. Street Sense passed Curlin at the top of the stretch, and took the lead from Hard Spun at around the 3/16 mile marker. However, Curlin managed to put in a final run, and he fought Street Sense neck-and-neck the rest of the way, and finally winning the race by a head with a time of 1:53.46, tying the record set by Tank's Prospect in 1985 and Louis Quatorze in 1996.

[edit] 139th Belmont Stakes

Curlin was the even money favorite in the Belmont Stakes. He engaged the champion filly, Rags to Riches, in a lengthy stretch duel, and lost by a head.

[edit] Haskell Invitational

Curlin was sent off as the favorite in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on August 5, 2007, but placed 3rd behind Any Given Saturday and Hard Spun, paying $2.10 to show on a fast track. The winning time was 1:48:35.

[edit] Jockey Club Gold Cup

Ridden by Robby Albarado, on September 30, he beat Lawyer Ron by a neck in a stretch duel in the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in a time of 2:01:20 with a Beyer rating of 114. As the Gold Cup is a Breeders' Cup Challenge race, the win earned him an automatic berth into the Breeders Cup Classic.

[edit] Breeders' Cup Classic

The first turn in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic.

On Saturday October 27, 2007 Curlin went off as the 4th betting choice in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Held at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey, the track conditions were listed as sloppy on the main track after several days of rain.

Emerging from about midpack in the field of nine, Curlin overtook the pace setter Hard Spun at the top of the stretch and drew away to win the 24th running of the Classic by 4¾ lengths over second place finisher Hard Spun.

The race was just the eighth time that a 3-year-old took the Classic. The colt covered the 1 1/4 mile distance in 2:00.59, which is considered a fast time on a sloppy track, earning a Beyer rating of 119. By comparison the Monmouth track record is 2:00.40 set in 1962 by Carry Back^[10].

[edit] Eclipse Awards

After his three year old campaign, Curlin was honored as the 2007 Horse of the Year as well as Three Year Old of the Year, defeating rivals Street Sense and Hard Spun.^[11].

[edit] Four-Year-Old Campaign

[edit] Dubai World Cup

Curlin began his four-year-old campaign in Dubai at the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, running in the Jaguar Trophy Handicap as a preparation for the Group I Dubai World Cup.^[12] He defeated a field of five by 2 ¹⁄₄ lengths under a hand ride in 2:00.60^[13]^[14]

Curlin was sent out as the odds-on favorite for the Dubai World Cup. Drawing post position 12, he ran three-wide outside of the leaders for the majority of the race before clearing the field when they reached the straight, winning by 7³⁄₄ lengths, the largest margin in World Cup history. He also became the only horse in Dubai World Cup history to win from the 12th post position. ^[15] His official winning time was initially listed by the Dubai Racing Commission as 2:00.15, which would have been the third fastest in the race's history, behind Dubai Millennium and Invasor. However that time has since been removed after an investigation by the DRC sparked by reports by The Racing Post that their timing experts showed multiple races on the card - including Curlin in DWC - as being slower than officially reported.^[16] The Racing Post claims that five of the six Thoroughbred races, the Godolphin Mile being the exception, went a full second slower than the official timings.^[17]

Per Asmussen, Curlin's plans for the remainder of his four year old campaign may include the either Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, the Japan Cup or both instead of the Breeders' Cup Classic. ^[18] Curlin is currently one of 148 horses nominated to the Arc^[19]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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