Curlin in Dubai: Locked and loaded

Dubai Racing Club release

Eleven days after carrying 60 kilograms to victory over 2,000 meters, American Horse of the Year Curlin returned to Nad Al Sheba Racecourse for a five-furlong (1000m) workout on Monday that assistant trainer Scott Blasi declared “awesome” as the colt gears up for the US$6 million Dubai World Cup (Gr.1).

“He was traveling very well and looked great,” he added of the move, which Curlin accomplished in 1:02.60 under exercise rider Carmen “Carlos” Rosas.

“Carlos does such a great job. I told him to go in 1:03 and that’s about as close as you can get. You could tell Curlin was very comfortable with where he was at.

"He had good direction toward the wire but was well within himself. It was exactly what we wanted.”

Curlin arrived at the track around 7:30 a.m., emerging out of a blanket of fog that was beginning to burn off under the rising sun.

Although observers had a difficult time picking him up on the backstretch, the chestnut son of Smart Strike was timed in :37.23 for the first three furlongs (600m), with a half-mile (400m) in :49.40.

Blasi said Curlin got three days off after handily winning the US$175,000 Jaguar Trophy at Nad Al Sheba on February 28.

“The prep was exactly what we had in mind and he came out of it in great order,” Blasi said. “He’s an exceptional horse—he just does everything so easily.”

Jockey Robby Albarado “was pretty impressed with (Curlin) all the way around” after the race, Blasi said.

Although the colt was a little keen in the early going of the Jaguar Trophy, he settled down, and the experience should benefit him and Albarado in the Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates Airline.

“I think Curlin will be a lot more focused next time,” Blasi said.

Between the race and the workout, Curlin had what Blasi described as “a great week of training” that included another visit to the Nad Al Sheba starting gate and a schooling session in the paddock during racing on Super Thursday’s March 6 program.

“It was a good experience for him,” Blasi said. “We gave him several rounds in the walking ring with a lot of people on hand. We want him to feel comfortable and relaxed out there.”

Blasi is overseeing Curlin’s preparation for the Dubai World Cup for trainer Steve Asmussen, who saddled the colt in a brief visit to the United Arab Emirates for the Jaguar Trophy and who will return for the Dubai World Cup on March 29.

Asmussen decided to send Curlin to Dubai for his World Cup prep race and training so that the colt could get accustomed to the surroundings.

With only one runner to care for, Blasi said he and Rosas feel somewhat like they are re-living the movie Groundhog Day, with every day’s routine being fairly much the same, and with hours of inactivity to fill, a rare situation for leading American trainer Asmussen's staff. However, Blasi would not want to be doing anything else right now.

“Curlin is the chance of a lifetime,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

Futures players flock to Pyro

No one has a shorter collective memory than horseplayers, which explains why Pyro, though he has failed to defeat reigning and still undefeated two-year-old champion War Pass in three meetings, pounded the Louisiana Derby winner to an absolutely underlayed 4-1 in Pool 2 of Churchill Downs’ Kentucky Derby Future Wager over the weekend.

At 9-2, there is little value in a bet of War Pass, either, but if he prevails in the Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial and takes an undefeated record to Kentucky, that price may appear very generous. Too late, though. The final weekend of future wagering is April 3-6, the weekend on which the Wood Memorial is run at Aqueduct, and that scenario, once the what-happened-yesterday dynamic kicks in, War Pass’ price will be cut in half.

The mutuel field – which included all 3-year-olds other than the 23 individual horses in Pool 2 – was the third choice at 6-1.

The biggest bet of the weekend, and perhaps the most astute, was a deal that sends Pyro to stand at Darley – which will ultimately become the retirement address of every top horse – at the conclusion of his racing life, which now is likely to be no longer than season’s end regardless of whether or not he every actually finishes in front of War Pass.