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.
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