Kentucky Derby Blog

Curlin, North America’s first $10 million earner, will be paraded one final time at Churchill Downs on Saturday, closing day, November 29th. He is scheduled to be paraded on the main track between the fifth (1:28 p.m. EST) and sixth races that day. A special salute in the paddock and/or winner’s circle will follow.

Curlin, whose victories included Churchill Downs’ Grade I Stephen Foster in June, has been at the track since finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was announced Friday that he will stand in stud next year at Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Kentucky.

“We’re thrilled to have another opportunity to showcase Curlin in front of his many fans in Kentucky,” Asmussen said. “For the past two years, he’s given our entire team numerous thrills and great memories. We’ve always considered Churchill Downs to be his ‘home’ track, and we’ll always remember that standing ovation he received after winning the Stephen Foster.”

Curlin won 11 of his 16 starts with two seconds and two thirds, and is the only horse in North American horse racing history to earn $5 million in back-to-back seasons. His prize money haul included $5,102,800 in 2007 and $5,399,000 this year.

Fire swept through a barn at a former race track Thursday, killing 27 horses.

It was the second deadly blaze this year at Riverside Downs in western Kentucky, near the Indiana border. Among the horses killed was Kept Lady, which won a race Sunday at Churchill Downs.

Investigators did not know what caused the blaze, which started between 5 and 5:30 a.m. EDT.

Five of the 31 horses in the barn that caught fire survived, but one was later euthanized. About 70 horses remain at the stables.

“It’s just a tragedy that you don’t want to get a phone call about,” said Kenny Miller, owner-trainer of Kept Lady and another horse killed.

It was the second deadly fire this year at the former quarterhorse and harness track. Six horses died January 4 in a fire blamed on a vending machine electrical cord.

The California Horse Racing Board declined to renew the licenses for four national account-wagering companies at a meeting on Tuesday in an attempt to push the companies into a signal-sharing deal.

The licenses for the four companies – Television Games Network, Twinspires.com, XpressBet, and Youbet.com – expire on Dec. 31 of this year. If the licenses are not renewed by that date, then no account-wagering company will be allowed to take a wager from a California resident or offer online horse betting on any race in California, according to Richard Shapiro, the racing board’s chairman.

Commissioners based their decision to decline the renewals because of dissatisfaction over a current stalemate between horsemen and account-wagering companies that has resulted in the blackout of the Hollywood Park signal on account-wagering platforms, Shapiro said. In addition, he said, commissioners are “fed up with the constant problems” that have surrounded the account-wagering market this year.

Officials of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, the horsemen’s organization that has blocked the sale of the Hollywood signal to account-wagering companies, and representatives of TrackNet, a simulcast-signal marketing company owned by Churchill Downs Inc. and Magna Entertainment, were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to attempt to work out a deal that would put Hollywood’s signal on Twinspires.com and XpressBet, the account-wagering companies owned, respectively, by Churchill and Magna. Representatives of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Group, a national company formed late last year to negotiate account-wagering deals on behalf of horsemen, will also attend the meeting.

Curlin will be retired from horse racing and go to stud in 2009, but he will be kept in training and may race one more time before the end of this year.

Curlin’s majority owner, Jess Jackson, released a statement over the weekend indicating that the colt will begin his stud career in 2009, but left room for one more start in 2008.

“I am proud to announce that he will start a new career in 2009,” Jackson said in the release, “and contribute his soundness, stamina, durability and athleticism to the breed. I am looking forward to seeing his foals compete and possibly exceed his unequaled racing record.”

A thoroughbred appraiser has set a $20 million value on Curlin and is recommending ownership be consolidated under primary owner Jess Jackson.

But attorneys for the horse’s minority owners, William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., argued in court Monday that the value should be far higher.

Jackson owns an 80 percent share of the horse and has bid $4 million to buy out the remaining 20 percent.

Thoroughbred consultant Ric Waldman said the bid represents fair market value and he is recommending that the sale be approved.

Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden could decide whether to approve the sale at another hearing on Dec. 1.

2008 was a great year for horse betting. Three names came to dominate the headlines this year: Curlin, Big Brown and Zenyatta. All three secured themselves at least one Eclipse Award with the only question being, Who is the 2008 Horse of the Year?

Defending Horse of the Year Curlin made thoroughbred history in 2008 by becoming the first horse to surpass the $10 million mark in lifetime earnings. The four-year-old colt went past Cigar on the career earnings list with a second straight win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

With Robby Albarado in the saddle for all seven starts, Curlin won five times in 2008 to bank $5,399,000. While it has not been officially announced, Curlin closes his Hall of Fame career with $10,501,800. The only thing he was unable to accomplish was repeating as Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Leading three-year-old Big Brown may have had the strangest of years. After blowing away the competition in the Florida Derby, Ruon for the Roses and Preakness Stakes, he failed miserably in the Belmont Stakes.

Owned by IEAH Stables, Big Brown came back with a win in the Haskell Invitational after looking beaten in mid-stretch by Coal Play. Big Brown’s final start was on the turf in the Monmouth Stakes in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup.

Unfortunately, Big Brown suffered a hoof injury during training for the Breeders’ Cup and was retired. He finished with $3,614,500 having won seven of eight career starts.

Other than Curlin, Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic champion Zenyatta is the only possible thoroughbred who could be voted 2008 Horse of the Year. The four- year-old filly is undefeated in nine career starts, seven this year, and has career earnings of better than $2.1 million.

Zenyatta had a very well orchestrated schedule. She started eight times in California, all on synthetic tracks. Her lone race elsewhere was the Apple Blossom Handicap this year at Oaklawn Park when she was the second choice behind 2007 Eclipse winner Ginger Punch who finished third.