Curlin Retired.. Now Appears Lane's End bound..
 

just got this email... from Thoroughbred Daily News.

Curlin's Racing Career Concludes
Posted: 10:01 PM ET

Reigning Horse of the Year Curlin (Smart Strike--Sherriff's Deputy, by Deputy Minister) will not race in 2009, according to a report in Sunday's New York Times. Stonestreet Stable's Jess Jackson told the Times he was open to the idea of running Curlin again this year, but said that there weren't any races left in North America rich enough to attract his horse. He also ruled out a start in the Japan Cup Dirt Dec. 7 because of problems with quarantine regulations. Jackson told the newspaper that he felt the big chestnut had little left to prove on the racetrack. "I've been blessed to have him and to have seen him run over 20 some odd months," Jackson said. "I have such warm memories of him. I just don't see how it could get any better." Stud plans for next year have not been finalized, although one option is for the G1 Dubai World Cup hero to stand at Jackson's Stonestreet Farms in Lexington, Kentucky. Jackson told the Times that several major breeding farms in Kentucky have been in touch with him to express their interest in acquiring Curlin as a stallion. "I'm going to breed 20 or so of my very best mares to him, no matter where he stands," Jackson said. "And we have some beauties. I really am eager to see his colts and fillies race and see what he produces."

No cynisism here towards Curlin the horse

i know i'm shocked.

seriously tho, hope everyone enjoyed the show, as we know it's too seldom seen-and i doubt that'll be changing any time soon.

Curlin at Monmouth last year for the Breeders' Cup was the most impressive physical specimen I've ever seen. I wish him nothing but the best.

Great career....Kudos to Jackson for keeping him on the track.

We've landed on the moon!!!!!!:)

Is anyone on here old enough to remember when an owner wasn't given extra praise for keeping a 3yo on the track for his 4yo year because it was just the way things were done? I actually saw a post on another forum with someone saying that IEAH deserves credit for deciding to bring Stardom Bound back next year. Amazing.

Jess Jackson never disappoints in his grandiose lunacy of the importance of this horse.. There are rumors he is not well physically, so I guess there may be excuses, but how about these gems?

"To race merely on dirt for inadequate compensation and to deny his genes to the gene pool of thoroughbreds, that’s not something I wanted to do.”

Inadequate compensation? This guy is too funny. He said he would have raced him in International turf events where they race for the real money, but since Curlin wasn't good enough for that he'll retire him. Huh? And gee Jess, we're sorry that the series of $500,000-$1,000,000 Gr. I races on dirt in the U.S. aren't adequate compensation for your steroid-pumped gene pool specimen that missed his entire juvenile year with physical issues...

“He’s had a stellar racing career,” Jackson said. “I think he’s one of the top 10 horses since 1900. How he rates versus others, it’s not merely about statistics.”

This is so comical as to be barely worthy of a discussion. Curlin doesn't break the Top 50 since 1900.. let alone the Top 10. If you use the very credible Blood-Horse Thoroughbred Champions Top 100 of the 20th century as a guide, (which doesn't even include horses since 2000), Holy Bull is #64. Would you put Curlin ahead of Holy Bull? Exactly.. So call him #65 at best.

Curlin was a very nice horse who had a very good career and it was swell to have him around as a 4yo. One plus of his retirement is it will mean that much less of Jackson to have to endure.

So true . It would be wonderful if Jackson kept Curlin at 20 mares . But you know how these factory farms are . 200 + is no problem for them .

nice post, all valid points. and his genes are in the gene pool already...now, if we could get more crooks to buy more horses and get thrown in jail, we could have more starters at four.

since you mentioned it...this is an excerpt from a bloodhorse article:


The number of stallions bred to 100 or more mares increased from 108 last year to 117 in 2004. First-year stallion Hold That Tiger led all stallions with 199 mares bred, six more than Fusaichi Pegasus. Hold That Tiger, a grade I-winning son of Storm Cat--Beware of the Cat, by Caveat stands at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky. A half-brother to Belmont (gr. I) winner Editor's Note, Hold That Tigers's 2004 stud fee was $15,000. Fusaichi Pegasus also stands at Ashford.

In fact, the top five stallions by mares bred all stand at Ashford. Grand Slam (191 mares covered), Van Nistelrooy (186), and Tale of the Cat (185) round out the top five.

It's a marketing ploy for higher stud fees from a guy who made his fortune selling sh!tty wine in a box. Would you expect any less?

#65? More like #165.

does anyone really think curlin will turn out well as a sire? i don't see him being an ap indy or mr p. or even close.

Honestly, the majority of stallions, even champion level runners, don't turn out to be A.P. Indy or Mr. P (who was, by the way, not a champion on the track-he wasn't even a graded SW). He may be, like Point Given and Turkoman and Black Tie Affair and Affirmed, too much of a stayer to sire the kind of runner that the market wants today - hot 2yo, miler who can stretch to 9f at 3; retire to stud and make more of the same.

I guess Stormy Atlantic won the gluttony of mares bred title this year with 199 .
http://breeding.bloodhorse.com/marelistreport.asp

well, no joke. i just tire of jacksons talk about how we need curlin in the gene pool. i don't see him as being anything terribly special.
but then, i tire of much of jackson trash talk.

It was the way things were done when one wanted to be a part of the sport of horse racing. It changed when living creatures were suddenly touted as investments for outsiders.

The 80's permanently changed the horse business, any "horse" business - be it STB & TB racing, hunter-jumpers, Arabs, QH, etc - it all changed forever after a dressed-up pyramid scheme became the business model.

Funny thing is, that has remained a major business model. It's 2008, and the inflow of new money has been gone for some time. Now it's really ugly.

I blame Leslie Combs and Nashua, myself :rolleyes:

They've been more concerned about "the industry" than the sport for a long time .

You put things in bold. I shouldn't have needed further warning to avoid drinking a beverage while reading these quotes. Completely my fault. Of course I think the gag reflex would've kicked in regardless.

i wonder which of the top horses since 1900 (unlike merlinsky, i originally thought he had said since 1990--not quite as laugh and spew-inducing when you read it as such) he would remove to put curlin in there???? i'd have a hard time trying to squeeze him into the top 10 since '90 myself...

oh, wait..you know-i bet i know what jackson really meant. he meant top ten since the turn of the century, and had forgotten we're now in the 20's, not the 19's. what else could it be?

It's nice to see that reference to Nashua and his syndication. Was the deal in place before the end of his 3 year old season? Another ground breaker deal was Secretariat's, formed before he raced as a 3 year old.

Didn't that involve Penny Chenery's dad and the family's financial situation though? If you're trying to save the farm, it's a bit more forgivable.

Oh and about the turn of the century thing, since I believe technically it began in 2001 not 2000 as commonly thought (though I'm still gonna think of 2000 as the dawn of the new whatever) doesn't that mean we're talking top 10 from 2001-2008? I mean it doesn't even include Tiznow's 2000 season or Giant's Causeway. Sneaky there, Jess.

You're right, that does make it a bit more forgivable. Also, when you consider what Secretariat accomplished as a 3 year old, you can accept his position as one of the best.

I actually thought he was fishing for some track to offer a bonanza for the 'one more race this year' that Jackson was willing to do, but couldn't find one rich enough.

--Dunbar

He said Curlin is one of the ten best horses of the last 108 years? That's funny. I could name 20 in the last 15 years that would have kicked his overrated butt. Please remind me of all his spectacular efforts in 2008.

i will miss the big guy.

as long as they are happy and healthy when they retire, i'm happy.

he really doesnt have to be anything like ap indy or mr. p to turn out well as a sire.

There are very few ap indy's and mr p's out there.

he could be like tiznow and turn out well as a sire.

Nuthin special when he wasn't getting his regular fix of Winny

Still laughing about those two young Euros blowing by him in the lane last month

Fitting way to (hopefully) end the overrated beast's racing career, in my opinion

Yes, Christopher Chenery had died and the family needed cash to pay the estate taxes; Secretariat was the most valuable of the farm's assets, so his syndication was a matter of necessity. Like the sale of Sunday Silence to Japan - nobody in Kentucky wanted to buy shares in him for stud and after the late 1980s bloodstock crash, Arthur Hancock needed cash to save the farm (Stone farm). The Japanese offered him the big bucks and off my favorite boy went.

Yeah the best chemical reproduction of a horse I have ever seen too.. Looked like Super star Billy Graham without the head band

(had to look it up:) Nashua was a 1952 model, the syndication was end of the year 1955 (end of his three-year-old year) early 1956:

Owner: Belair Stud Breeder: Belair Stud State Bred: KY
Winnings: 30 Starts: 22 - 4 - 1, $1,288,565

Won: Futurity S., Hopeful S., Grand Union Hotel S., Juvenile S., Arlington Classic, Flamingo S., Florida Derby, Belmont S., Wood Memorial S., Washington Park Match Race (vs. Swaps), Preakness S. (NTR), Jockey Club Gold Cup, Dwyer S., Monmouth H., Widener H., Suburban H., Grey Lag H., Jockey Club Gold Cup (NTNA), Camden H.

Champion Two-Year-Old Colt, 1954.
Horse Of The Year & Champion Three Year Old Colt, 1955.
Hall Of Fame Inductee, 1965.
Set new North American record at Belmont, 16f in 3:20.2 (1956 Jockey Club Gold Cup).
Set NTR in the '55 Preakness, 9.5f in 1:54.3.
Auctioned in 1956 with the winning sealed bid of $1,252,230.
Sire of 636 foals, 77 stakes winners; AEI 2.37.
Died 1982.
----------------------
Time Magazine, Monday Dec 26, 1955:

Spendthrift's Purchase

When they wager that one horse can run faster than another, most horseplayers worry about one race at a time. Leslie Combs II of Lexington, Ky. faced a somewhat different problem. The horse of his choice would be an odds-on favorite almost any time it ran. The question was not whether it would win, but how much it would make for its owner. It had already earned nearly $1,000,000; Combs estimated that it would romp home with another $450,000 before it slowed down. After that, Combs figured, the horse would earn some $800,000 more at stud.

Just in case some other well-heeled horseman came up with the same answers, Combs added $1,200 for good luck. Then he put in a sealed bid for $1,251,200 on Nashua, pride of the late Sportsman William Woodward Jr., whose Belair Stud stable went on the auction block after he was accidentally shot and killed by his wife (TIME, Nov. 7).

If others agreed with Combs's generous calculations, they lacked the cash of their convictions. When the Woodward estate executors opened the bids on Belair Stud last week, Combs had bought himself a horse. He will be paying the highest price a thoroughbred has ever brought in the history of racing.* The other 61 horses in Belair Stud went for a total of $615,000.

To Nashua, all this high finance means little. Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, dean of American trainers, will continue to have the 1955 Horse of the Year in his charge; the only difference will be that from now on Nashua will race under the orange-and-blue silks of Combs's Spendthrift Farm.

It will, that is, when Combs gets up exactly $1,126,080 (the original bid required only a certified check for 10% of the purchase price). To Combs, this should present no problem.

Left end on the famed "Praying Colonels" of Centre College (1920-22), he worked his way up through polo playing and coal-mine operating to expanding the family fortune at Spendthrift. Besides, says Combs, he will not have to foot the bill alone. He was front man for a syndicate that includes five others.

* Next highest: $700,000, paid for the Aga Khan's Tulyar by the Irish National Stud in 1952.

Just posted on Blood Horse:

"A Thoroughbred appraiser has set a $20 million value on reigning Horse of the Year Curlin and is recommending ownership be consolidated under primary owner Jess Jackson."

Lol ... very true

Supercurlie was quite a physical specimen indeed.

Fortunately, though, they had some kryptonite (i.e. mandatory 'roid testing) at this year's BC and we just saw curlie ... not Supercurlie.




Hard to believe DaHoss9698 isn't in here defending the Winstrol Wonder, by the way...

Curlin was a very nice horse.. I imagine it's hard to be objective if you own him.. I wonder if he would have been within 10 lengths of Ghostzapper at 9 f's? Formal Gold would have eatin him for lunch, I'm not Invasor wouldn't have crushed him as well.. All and all it was good to see him race at 4, even if he wasn't so fast after all..

LOL, someone should have updated Albarado about the BC policy change on chemicals this year .

I remember reading that article and assumed he meant one of the top 10 horses since 1990, and even then, I thought that was probably stretching the truth!!

I don't think it's even worth arguing about Curlin being in the top 20 horses, or 50 for that matter, in the 20th century. Although, as a 3yo he had tremendous raw talent, based upon his performances he just doesn't rate it. I also don't blame Jackson for thinking so. The guy is super-high on his horse. You'd expect that. It's just banter.

I am glad we got to see him run as a 4yo. Unlike many others, I am not convinced that the ownership issues and the accompanying legal issues forced his retirement or his racing campaign for that matter. It's easy to say as an observer, however, that doesn't make it fact.

Regardless, he's retired and we'll see his offspring in a few years.

Eric

I would breed my mare to Curlin in a heart beat..He looked the part, is out of a very significant sire, was fast as sheat early, and was basically sound..What else do do need to know or want!!!

Funny, that happened to me, too. I first read it as 1990. Our brains probably forced our eyes to "see" something that was at least arguable, rather than something from Bizarro World.

--Dunbar