Casey’s Racing Blog

I might as well call this blog the Curlin Files since I write about my favourite fellow so much on here! But again, our champ Curlin is in the news. It has been announced that Curlin will stand at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm for the 2009 breeding season for $75,000. We had previously heard that Curlin would indeed be standing at stud in the New Year, but his fee and location had yet to be determined.

Whether or not he will indeed run one more race this season, has yet to be seen. I’m sure it is the dream of everyone involved with this fabulous horse, to see him end his career on a win. One major race he was in contention for, and the last graded race with a high purse for older horses this year, is the Clark Handicap scheduled for November 28^th at Churchill Downs. Trainer Steve Asmussen said of the possibility of Curlin running in the Clark; “It’s not happening. With the pot dropping (from $500,000 to $400,000) and the weather being bad, it’s not going to happen.” Obviously the risk to Curlin is not worth the reward of one last go. But there still might be an option or two for Curlin to race again. A stakes race with a high purse could be created for Curlin, possibly at a warm weather track. Or he could make the trip to Hong Kong for the Cathay Pacific International Races on December 14^th. We’ll have to wait and see.

Other news involving Curlin relate to his ownership. Curlin has been majority owned by Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson Winery since after he broke his maiden as a three-year-old. Initially he bought 31% of him, with 29% bought by Satish Sanan, and 20% bought by George Bolton. The other 20% was retained by sellers Midnight Cry Stables. Gradually, Jackson first bought out Sanan with Bolton as a partner, and then bought out Bolton as well to have an 80% share in the horse.

Midnight Cry Stables is owned by Shirley Cunningham and William Gallion, two lawyers who sided for over 400 people in a class action lawsuit against the makers of diet drug ‘fen-phen’. They won a $200 million settlement for their clients, but were stripped of their law licenses in August 2006 for alleged misappropriation of the funds. During the ensuing suit against Cunningham and Gallion by their original clients, a $42 million (plus $20.1 million in interest) judgment was made against them and one other lawyer. A motion granted the 20% interest in Curlin’s ownership to the 418 clients.

All of this occurred since Curlin has become a superstar. This 20% interest was put up for private auction by way of a sealed bid. No acceptable offers were received. Jess Jackson has since made an offer of $4million. This has raised many questions surrounding Curlin’s value. By extrapolation, is Curlin worth $20million? Or is he worth more? A yearling named The Green Monkey was bought in 2006 by Coolmore for a record $16million, and he ended up being a dud, only winning $10,240 in three starts and never racing again. So the deliberations will continue, but for now, all we know is that Curlin will be in the breeding shed come January.