Kentucky Derby Blog

Curlin became the first horse in North America to top $10 million in career earnings, winning the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday at Belmont Park. The $450,000 winner’s purse pushed Curlin’s career bankroll to $10,246,800. Cigar held the old mark of $9,999,815, which stood for 12 years.

“It was very emotional for me,” trainer Steve Asmussen added. “I was very excited and very proud of everybody involved. “Fifteen races and he’s won more than 10 million. We had two back-to-back five million-dollar years. Robby didn’t turn the stick over on him today, and the horse looked (great).”

About an hour after the race, Barbara Banke, wife of owner Jess Jackson, said Curlin was to ship to Santa Anita on Sunday morning to begin getting acclimated to that track’s new Pro-Ride synthetic surface. The Breeders’ Cup Classic will be held at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

“We’re thinking about it,” Jackson said by phone, regarding the Breeders’ Cup.

Curlin was made the 3-5 program favorite today by New York Racing Association handicapper Eric Donovan for Saturday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup. The Grade I 1 1/4-mile race drew a field of nine, including narrow Travers runner-up Mambo in Seattle, who drew the extreme outside post and is second choice on the morning line at 7-2.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup is the 10th of 11 races on Saturday with an approximate post time of 5:52 PM EST. It will be televised on ESPNnews, TVG and HRTV. Here is the field, in post-position order:

1 Ravel (Rafael Bejarano) 30-1
2 Merchant Marine (Cornelio Velasquez) 12-1
3 Timber Reserve (Kent Desormeaux) 12-1
4 Wanderin Boy (Alan Garcia) 10-1
5 Curlin (Robby Albarado) 3-5
6 Angliana (Rajiv Maragh) 30-1
7 A. P. Arrow (Ramon Dominguez) 20-1
8 Stones River (Gabriel Saez) 20-1
9 Mambo in Seattle (Edgar Prado) 7-2

Curlin is running for the 90th Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational this Saturday. The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the summer meeting at Saratoga.

Curlin won the 1¼-mile Jockey Club Gold last year as a three-year-old by a neck over Lawyer Ron. A win on Saturday not only gives him the money title, it also will nail down a second consecutive Horse of the Year title. And it moves him into an elite class in horse racing history, as only 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) have won consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Curlin has earned $9,796,800 and trails only Cigar, who earned $9,999,815, as racing’s top money-earner. The winner’s share of the Jockey Club Gold Cup purse is $450,000, and that would vault Curlin to the top of the money pile. Second ($150,000), third ($75,000) or fourth ($37,000) would leave Curlin short of Cigar’s mark.

TVG and HRTV both will televise the big grade I stakes from Belmont Park Sept. 27 – the Gold Cup, Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, Beldame, Flower Bowl, and Vosburgh. The Jockey Club Gold Cup may be shown on ESPN Classic or ESPN News. That, however, has yet to be decided.

Kentucky racing regulators took steps Monday toward a first-in-the-nation ban on whipping practices that often result in cuts and welts on harness-racing horses.

A safety and welfare panel on Monday voted to outlaw certain kinds of whips and riding crops that have a snapper, strands of material at the end that can leave welts on horses.

It also recommended restrictions on the way in which a driver can hit a horse. One-handed whipping would be banned, and a new rule would require drivers to keep both hands in front of the body during a race.

Kentucky already fines drivers for injuring horses through whipping, but the changes will add stiff new penalties. Drivers could be suspended for 10 to 30 days and fined $100 to $13,000 for a first offense. They could be suspended for as long as a year and fined as much as $20,000 for using a whip with a snapper.

Big Brown ridden by Kent Desormeaux won the Monmouth Stakes by a neck over the second choice Proudinsky Saturday in Oceanport, New Jersey. It was a race that the 3-year-old Big Brown could have easily lost. The field started to gang up on him near the top of the stretch, and he briefly appeared beaten. But he showed he is every bit as determined as he is talented. He refused to let another horse pass him in the stretch and, despite the narrow margin of victory, seemed to be going easily inside the final few yards. Big Brown covered the 1 1/8 miles on grass in 1:47.41.

The $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic will be an even tougher assignment for Big Brown, but it appears that he will be going into the race in top shape. Big Brown returned $3.20, $2.60 and $2.20. Proudinsky paid $3.00 and $2.40, and Shakis paid $2.80 to show. His next race will be the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Santa Anita’s synthetic track on October 25.

Big Brown is returning to turf in Monmouth Stakes on September 13th for the first time since his career debut last September. The race was created to accommodate Big Brown’s connections, who wanted a prep race six weeks before the October 25 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. The $200,000 purse for the Monmouth Stakes increases to $500,000 with Big Brown’s start.

“I have to think he’s probably better on the grass,” Dutrow said yesterday, when his 3-year-old star breezed 5 furlongs in an easy 1:05.55 around three sets of cones on a good Aqueduct course. “All the riders who’ve been on him say he worked better on grass than on dirt. When he’s on dirt, I have to put bandages on all four feet because he runs down and burns his heels. On the grass, I don’t.”

Ready to take on Big Brown in the Monmouth Stakes is stakes winner and Grade 1-placed KISS THE KID (Kingmambo), who exits a third in the Philip H. Iselin Stakes on the main track and finished second in the grassy Bob Harding Stakes two starts back at Monmouth Park.

Other probables for the Monmouth S. include the multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire SILVER TREE (Hennessy), who exits a score in the Oceanport Stakes over the course; Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial H. hero PROUDINSKY (Ger, a close sixth in the Bernard Baruch H.; and multiple Grade 3 winner HOTSTUFANTHENSOME (Awesome Again), who just missed to Silver Tree two back.

RED ROCKS (Ire), the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner who defeated Curlin (Smart Strike) in the Man o’ War Stakes last time out, is also possible.

Jess Jackson, an owner of Curlin, announced on Thursday that Curlin will make his next start in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Sept. 27. Curlin won the Gold Cup last year and a win this year would enable him to surpass Cigar and become Thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading money earner. Curlin has earned $9,796,800, just $203,015 behind Cigar’s record of $9,999,815.

As a three-year-old Curlin won the Arkansas Derby, Preakness Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

This will be Curlin’s third consecutive race in New York. In July, he finished second in the Man o’ War. his first start on turf. Last Saturday, Curlin won the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes in his Saratoga debut. Curlin has twice run previously on Belmont’s main track, finishing second to Rags to Riches in the Belmont Stakes before knocking off Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Jockey Club Gold Cup
Grade: I Purse: $750,000 Distance: 10 Furlongs Age: 3-Year-Olds & Up
Track: Belmont Park TV: Sunday, September 27, 2008 @ 4:00 PM ET