Wednesday, September 24, 2008

CURLIN ARRIVES AT BELMONT PARK

Stonestreet Stable’s Curlin, the defending Horse of the Year, arrived at Belmont Park Tuesday afternoon after a “very uneventful” van ride from Saratoga Race Course.

With a victory in Saturday’s 90th running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup, the 4-year-old Smart Strike colt will become American racing’s all-time leading money winner and the first American Thoroughbred to reach $10 million in career earnings. The winner’s purse of the Jockey Club Gold Cup is $450,000.

Curlin arrived at Belmont Park at 1:15 p.m. and was in his barn 15 minutes later. After some time in his stall and one turn around the shedrow, he was given a bath. Playful in the autumn air, Curlin’s dappled chestnut body lit up underneath the September sun.


“He tends to come around in the fall and he’s pretty sharp right now,” said Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “He loves the cool weather. We had really smooth sailing coming down the highway today, no traffic. It was very uneventful and took about 3 ½ hours. When we got here, it was a little warm, so we decided to give him a bath and make him comfortable.”

Curlin breezed an easy half-mile in 51.85 on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course on Monday.

“It was a nice, easy half-mile, typical Curlin,” Blasi said “Everything went perfect.”

Curlin is expected to gallop on the main track here Wednesday at 6:30 a.m., and every day leading into the race. He will school in the paddock during Thursday’s second race as he prepares for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a race he won by a nose over Lawyer Ron last year.

Should he win the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Curlin could again nail down Horse of the Year honors, and join Mad Hatter (1921-’22), Dark Secret (1933-’34), Nashua (1955-’56), Kelso (1960-’64), the mare Shuvee (1970-’71), Slew o’Gold (1983-’84), Crème Fraiche (1986-’87) and Skip Away (1996-’97) as the only repeat winners of the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Firethorn won it in 1935 and as a five-year-old in 1937.

By winning the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga Race Course on August 30, Curlin moved ahead of Skip Away and into second place behind two-time Horse of the Year Cigar as American racing’s all-time leading money-earner. Cigar, the 1995 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, earned $9,999,815. Curlin’s total stands at $9,796,800.

“One of the goals from early in the year was to beat Cigar’s earnings’ record,” Blasi said. “To win this race for a second year in a row and to be compared to those horses would be a great honor.”

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