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http://www.sporting-life.com/racing/new … urlin.html
This is very interesting, and will provide a lot of answers for those who doubt the quality of American sand/dirt racers in comparison to European turf horses (myself included). It’s extremely rare for top quality American horses to be sent to Europe, and I for one hope he takes his chance.
My advice. Lay him all day long if he turns up.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Yes, that would be an interesting event – but he will not run – not to speak win. Is he free of lasix, bute, other drugs? Europe rules the waves on turf.
Wouldn’t stand a chance, lay, lay, lay. Running on that funny stuff is a completely different ball game to European turf racing. No drug use. Would do well to do as well as Deep Impact did depending on the strength of this years Arc.
3 points.
He’s already run and won twice in Dubai without the aid of medication.
He may well prefer Turf to Polytrack. He’s been at Keeneland since his return from Dubai-and maybe they already know that a trip to Europe would be a better bet than a trip West in late October.
And unlike most other major American outfits-apart from Biancone and Christophe Clement- they have someone on their team who knows French racing inside out and top to bottom.
Picking any turf races in the US will be interesting. Perhaps the Arlington Million-a chance to test him at 1 1/4 against decent European horses before wasting all that time on a long trip.
Then perhaps just as they did in Dubai-go the 2 race route and prep in the Foy.
pengamon:
Interesting stuff. How would you rate Curlin’s chances, if he was to take his chance?
Different kettle of fish.
But this is an out and out superstar we are talking about. Professional horses can adapt to certain climates and surfaces if the trainer is prepared to do such.
He seems to cope with various tempos as well.
It would add so much more to the Arc.
pengamon:
Interesting stuff. How would you rate Curlin’s chances, if he was to take his chance?
I would still say that it’s an outside chance that he’ll make the trip but it would be risky to offer long prices and you’re not going to get many Americans rushing to bite you hand off as very few have Betfair accounts and the vast majority hate the idea of him running in the Arc-because they know that he’ll never run in the US again after mid-August at the latest if they take up the challenge.
Smart Strike sired Canadian Turf Champion Portcullis and the top class Soaring Free but more recently Breeders’ Cup Turf winner English Channel.
It would be nice if there were more owner’s like the guy who own’s Curlin. He’s kept the horse in training as a four year old which is rare these days and now instead of wrapping the horse up in cotton wool until the Breeders Cup he’s prepared to come over and challenge for the Arc. Good luck to him I say. Having Curlin turn up at Longchamp would add a great deal of excitement to the race and if he handled the turf I see no reason why he wouldn’t have a good chance of winning.
Hopefully he avoids injury. The last three winners of the Dubai World Cup (Roses In May, Electrocusionist & Invasor) haven’t made it to the latter part of the season.
Deep Impact was the new Pegasus as well. Loads and loads of positives were highlighted on this very forum – he failed and he was a genuine turf horse.
It isn’t just a different ball game it is very, very different. Curlin will not win the Arc take it from me here and now.
Go on copy and paste it into word then post my comment back up after the race is run.
In fairness, not many top class American dirt horses have tried to win the Arc. They sent their top three year old, Tom Rolfe (winner of the Preakness), over in ‘ 65, thinking that they could put that French upsart (Sea Bird
) in his place. Tom Rolfe ran a creditable sixth.The European turf specialists have an enormous advantage when running in any of Europe’s major races against American ans Southern Hemisphere horses – likewise the American dirt specialists when running against overseas opposition on their own surface in top class races ( I know Arazi won the Juvenile, but he was an exeptional two year old who defied logic that day ).
Though, that said, had they sent over Secretariat in ‘ 73, he may just have got the better of Rheingold.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
3 points.
He’s already run and won twice in Dubai without the aid of medication.
He may well prefer Turf to Polytrack. He’s been at Keeneland since his return from Dubai-and maybe they already know that a trip to Europe would be a better bet than a trip West in late October.
And unlike most other major American outfits-apart from Biancone and Christophe Clement- they have someone on their team who knows French racing inside out and top to bottom.
Picking any turf races in the US will be interesting. Perhaps the Arlington Million-a chance to test him at 1 1/4 against decent European horses before wasting all that time on a long trip.
Then perhaps just as they did in Dubai-go the 2 race route and prep in the Foy.
I have a feeling that the only reason why Curlin’s still in training in 2008 is that there was no way to sort out the complex ownership issues brought about by the jailing of the 2 original owners and then the arrival on the scene of the 400+ people and their lawyers that Gallion and Cunningham owe about $65 Million to as a result of the Phen-Fen case.
With all the 3 year old retirements last year it was lucky that this happened and Curlin remained in training
However intricate the ownership issues may be Curlin is the best middle distance horse in the world by the proverbial mile, and there is no logical reason why he can’t win the Arc.
Dubai Millennium was American bred and won on both turf and dirt, didn’t he?
All credit to connections for even considering it.
Wouldn’t stand a chance, lay, lay, lay. Running on that funny stuff is a completely different ball game to European turf racing. No drug use. Would do well to do as well as Deep Impact did depending on the strength of this years Arc.
Curlin’s connections already showed their shrewdness in having prepared him for the Dubai World Cup using a prep over there although the race was run on the same dirt as in the States (incidentally, US dirt is totally different from Japanese one). In contrast, Deep Impact’s connections were too naive and inexperienced in their preparations, as was clearly shown in their memoir on their Arc disaster lately published (in Japanese).
Nevertheless, he could finish ahead of two major rivals in his first race in Europe which, as we all well know, was totally different–pace, surface, strategies, etc.—from those in Japan as well as in the States (the same, to the other direction, was the case with Ouija Board in the Japan Cup ’06 ). What is more, DI’s sire, which is also Natagora’s grandsire, used to be a dirt horse in America.
All these facts suggest that a very strong horse on any surface, if further strengthen with careful preparations, experienced staffs, and a bit of luck, could be triumphant on foreign soil. At this stage, I cannot deny that Curlin might have all these requisites for his Arc win. After all, he is the world best horse in training, isn’t he?
Would be extremely intersting but I’d be with Himself on this one – Lay him dawn til dusk.
Deep Impact was the new Pegasus as well. Loads and loads of positives were highlighted on this very forum – he failed and he was a genuine turf horse.
It isn’t just a different ball game it is very, very different. Curlin will not win the Arc take it from me here and now.
Go on copy and paste it into word then post my comment back up after the race is run.
Flash,
you have many interesting things to say about domestic racing but are by your own admission utterly ignorant about racing "stateside"; why do you bother getting involved in a debate you can add nothing to, other than an air of vague xenophobia ~ it does you no credit.
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