SID FERNANDO Curlin leads resurgence in bloodstock industry
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EARLING sales, by and large, were up again versus a year ago, and the mixed sales at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland immediately following the Breeders’ Cup races are anticipated to continue recent growth trends. The gloom in Kentucky after the global economic collapse of 2008 has faded, and the rise of young American sire power, headed by such as Tapit, War Front, Medaglia d’Oro, Kitten’s Joy, Scat Daddy, Curlin, and others, has been a boon to the resurgent industry. Perhaps the biggest revelation in the sire ranks is Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Curlin, Jess Jackson’s Horse of the Year of 2007 and 2008. He entered stud at Lane’s End Farm in 2009, a grim year, for a fee of $75,000. In contrast, 2004 Horse of Ghostzapper, also a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, had entered stud at the heights of the market in 2006 for a fee of $200,000 – the highest for a first-year sire in North America since Devil’s Bag in 1985 for the exact amount. That American Pharoah’s fee for 2016 has been speculated as high as $200,000 is an indication of how far the industry has rebounded. Jackson, who ended up controlling 80 percent of the chestnut son of Smart Strike after buying up the interests of various partners, was an enthusiastic owner and a big believer in Curlin’s future as a sire. He established Stonestreet Farm in 2005 after a successful career as a winemaker and attorney, and after Curlin he’d raced the brilliant 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. Before Jackson died in April of 2011, he bred Rachel Alexandra to Curlin in the stallion’s third year at stud, and Jackson’s wife and partner, Barbara Banke, who now runs Stonestreet, named the resulting colt Jess’s Dream in his memory.
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This has been the year of American Pharoah, and the mood in the game is buoyant as the Triple Crown winner looks to end his career a winner in the first Breeders’ Cup Classic held at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky. But Lexington and environs, the home of the North American bloodstock industry and soon to house American Pharoah at Coolmore’s Ashford division, is on its own high. In 2012, Curlin’s first runners hit the track. Like Ghostzapper before him, he didn’t set the world on fire with his twoyear-olds. Ghostzapper’s fee had dropped from $200,000 to as low as $20,000 before rebounding to $65,000 in 2015. Curlin stood for $35,000 in 2015, up from $25,000 in 2014, but he’ll be in a different altitude in 2016 because, like Ghostzapper, who broke out in his later crops to establish himself as a very good stallion, Curlin has turned it around – and how! – in a manner that would have made Jackson both prescient and proud. It was reported in late July that John Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm and partners had paid $6 million-plus at a U.S. Department of Justice auction for the 20 percent of Curlin owned by the jailed partners of Midnight Cry Stable, Curlin’s original owner and later a partner of Jackson’s in the horse. That price puts an overall valuation on the stallion at more than $30 million, which suggests that his stud fee could be in the $75,000 to $100,000 range at Hill ‘n’ Dale, where the stallion will stand next year. The Breeders’ Cup races will determine how high. Almost immediately after the news of the sale, Curlin’s stock exploded at Saratoga, justifying Sikura’s outlay and culminating with Keen Ice’s shocking defeat of American Pharoah in the mile-and-a-quarter Grade 1 Travers. Also at Saratoga, Jess’s Dream made his long-awaited debut a winning one in a highly rated maiden special weight
at mile and an eighth, but the sire’s other stakes winners were Curalina in the Grade 1 Alabama at a mile and a quarter and the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at a mile and an eighth; two-yearold Exaggerator in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special at six and a half furlongs; and twoyear-old filly Off the Tracks in the Grade 3 Schuylerville over six furlongs. Curlin’s promise now being fulfilled started with his first-crop Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice in 2013. The latter returned in 2014 to take the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap and proved he could win at the top level from a mile to a mile and a half. The reputation Curlin had started to develop was one for late-developing three-yearolds – which is still a part of his repertoire; Stonestreet’s well-regarded three-yearold Union Jackson impressively won a maiden at Keeneland three weeks before the Breeders’ Cup – but his versatility this year with two-year-olds, earlier-developing three-year-olds, classic-type three-year-olds, older horses, and turf horses has added to his resume for being the complete sire of high-class runners. All of this is good news for breeders, owners, fans, and the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, as Curlin, the last iconic male horse before American Pharoah, will be well represented on racing’s big weekend. And he may have a say in the main event as Keen Ice will attempt to stop American Pharoah from leaving on a high note. ■
The reputation Curlin had started to develop was one
for late-developing three-year-olds – which is still a part of his repertoire
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 38
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