Preakness winner Curlin splashed his way to victory in muddy Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park, Oceanport, NJ
Curlin, the Preakness winner, moved into contention around the final turn and swept past Hard Spun and Lawyer Ron before a cheering crowd of 41,781 that had endured a rain deluge most of the day.
In a meteoric rise to stardom, Curlin capped a sensational campaign by once again defeating Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense as well as leading older horse Lawyer Ron and all his other 3-year-old rivals. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Curlin won for the sixth time in nine starts, has never been worse than third and likely will be voted Horse of the Year.
“He showed he’s a true champion,” jockey Robby Albarado said. “He’s an amazing horse.”
Curlin, coming off a victory over Lawyer Ron in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, finished 4½ lengths ahead of Hard Spun, with long shot Awesome Gem third and Street Sense fourth.
The big chestnut colt covered the 1¼ miles in a speedy 2:00.59 over a sloppy track and returned $10.80, $5.20 and $4.20. The track record is 2:00 2/5 set in 1962 by Carry Back.
Hard Spun, the Derby runner-up who came into the race with a win over Street Sense in the Kentucky Cup Classic, returned $7.60 and $5.80. Awesome Gem returned $9.40 to show.
For Street Sense, the loss was tough to take in the final race of his brilliant career.
“I had no excuse. I had nothing but racetrack in front of me,” said Street Sense jockey Calvin Borel. “We just got outrun. I’m sad to see him go, but he’s going off to be a dad now.”
Off the track, the Curlin controversy carries on.
The imposing son of Smart Strike was purchased privately for $57,000 by William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., who are currently in jail on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud in the diet drug fen-phen case. They sold controlling interest of the colt in February for a reported $3.5 million to a group composed of Jess Jackson, founder of Kendall-Jackson wines; Satish Sanan’s Padua Stables; and George Bolton.
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