Saratoga Springs, New York
The gauntlet has been thrown down by Jess Jackson. Curlin will race next at Saratoga Race Course, Aug. 30, in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes and the door is open for trainer Rick Dutrow and the IEAH family of boiler-room penny stock hustlers to take up the challenge.
If the connections of Big Brown are sportsmen, people concerned with what is best for the racing game, with proving that their horse is better than the 2007 Horse of the Year, they will send their animal to the Spa to face Curlin on Aug. 30. In fact, should they elect to pass the opportunity – they’ve raised the prospect of running in Boston -- they will expose themselves as loudmouth posers.
“We considered many options but this is the best place to showcase his talent,” Jackson said on Tuesday. “He’s very fit, but more important, he’s very happy here. We’re complying with his wishes.”
Jackson said he and trainer Steve Asmussen considered the Pacific Classic and Arlington Million before making the decision to run in the Woodward. After that, there is much on the table including the Breeders’ Cup Turf, the Japan Cup, the Hong Kong Cup but probably not the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Neither of the men steering Curlin’s ship is anxious to compete on a synthetic surface. There is also the possibility, raised by Jackson, that Curlin may race at age five. (Big Brown’s career is, meanwhile, day-to-day).
Dutrow’s opinion of Curlin was detailed on Monday here and elsewhere. The opportunity to put up is at hand and there is no excuse not to show up in Saratoga for the Woodward. Big Brown would have had 27 days between races and, his connections say, only one more objective, that in late October at Santa Anita, where they will not find Curlin.
Now, the challenge is either accepted, or the slicksters from Long Island duck Curlin, thereby rendering themselves and their horse insignificant.
Stay tuned.
--PM
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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3 comments:
Class -
"We don't have anything to prove, he does," Jackson said. "We like him, he's a great horse; it would be good for racing to have them together. We're not avoiding him, we're just doing what's right for Curlin."
Classless-
Curlin couldn't win the Derby, we could..... We're way better than Curlin."
Paul:
Jess Jackson established with this one press conference that he has infinitely more integrity than the entire "Convict-Train" formerly known as IEAH. As far as Dutrow is concerned, perhaps a lesson, or twenty, in humility from the likes of Mack Miller, Carl Nafzger, or Mike Matz would be in order.
After listening to the pump & dump scam artist known as the CEO of IEAH yesterday, he seems to indicate that Monmouth was so wonderful to him and his cronies. What did they do? Pay their tolls on the Outerbridge?
I'll gladly pick up the tolls on the Tappen Zee and the Thruway if they agree to run against Curlin at Saratoga. However, I think that they would offer any bogus excuse to avoid the Woodward. Sportsmanship is not a word associated with the scam artists connected to Big Brown.
I'll throw a twenty into the pot so they can stop for burger and fries on their way to Saratoga.
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