CURLIN: BREAKTHROUGH YEAR FOR JUVENILES

Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm resident Curlin compiled one of the great résumés by a racehorse, and his flair for winning big races has carried to his time at stud.

Each of his first five crops of racing age featured a U.S. classic winner or classicplaced runner, including 2013 Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice from his debut crop and 2015 Preakness winner Exaggerator. He filled out the exacta of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with winner Good Magic and runner-up Solomini. He added an Eclipse Award winner in 2015 in champion sophomore filly Stellar Wind, and three of his top five earners in 2017 were handicap division runners.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the 14-year-old Smart Strike horse sat atop the Beyer Sire Performance Standings, both in the number of horses to earn a 100-plus dirt Beyer Speed Figure in 2017 (seven) and the number of times they did it (13). He also was second by the number of 90-plus dirt Beyers achieved by his runners last year, at 46.

On the strength of his 1-2 finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Curlin also finished second by juvenile progeny earnings in 2017, with 49 runners and 14 winners making $2,578,994.

“Every aspect of analysis you can have with a horse, he checks an A-plus,” said Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John G. Sikura. “He’s phenomenal classic sire, now getting 2-year-olds.”

Good Magic, a finalist for champion 2-year-old male, was Curlin’s top earner of 2017. Stellar Wind, a three-time Grade 1 winner last year, is a finalist in the older female category.

Other runners of note by Curlin from the previous year include Grade 1 winner and Belmont Stakes runner-up Irish War Cry; Grade 2 winners Keen Ice and Curlin’s Approval; Grade 3 winners Terra Promessa, Curlin Road, and Connect; and multiple Grade 1-placed Solomini, who also is a juvenile male Eclipse Award finalist.

Curlin had two runners tie for his highest dirt Beyer, at 106. Keen Ice hit the number twice, first for his victory in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap in July, then when second in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes in October. Connect rung up the same figure as the winner of the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes. All three races were at Belmont Park.

Keen Ice reached the three-digit mark a third time, when he earned a 104 for his second in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes in August at Saratoga. Irish War Cry also was a three-time three-digit Beyer earner, picking up a pair of 101 figures for winning the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes and Holy Bull Stakes, and a 100 for his second in the Belmont Stakes.

Good Magic earned a 100 for his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile victory.

While Curlin has accomplished more at stud from his first seven crops of racing age than most stallions do in a lifetime, and his dirt credentials are well established, Sikura said his long-term goals for the horse’s career involve branching to still another frontier.

“The last thing for him to do, and I think it’s going to happen, is for him to get a Group 1 winner or a Breeders’ Cup winner in an important international race on the turf,” he said. “That’s just about access to the right mares.”

Curlin stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm for an advertised fee of $150,000.