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Curlin’s first winner

By Sid Fernando

Lane’s End sire Curlin was represented by his first winner June 17 at the Central Moscow Hippodrome in Russia, much like Three Chimneys’s Big Brown was—at Kazan, in Russia, as reported by Racing Post today.

But Curlin’s first winner is also his first stakes winner. The $25,000 yearling Zimniy Dvorets won the Group 2 Summer Stakes on the Russian 2000 Guineas undercard, but Russian stakes races DO NOT qualify for international black type. He also had another winner on the day at a different track. It’s a sign of the times that US-based sires are being represented by winners all over the globe, and many times these horses are not being reported on a timely basis by US and international publications.

Would you believe that the Curlin winner was first mentioned by me on Twitter as far as I can tell?

I might as well note here—as I did today on Twitter—that the Russian 2000 Guineas winner was sired by Medaglia d’Oro, too. Named Sempre in Oro, this guy was a $140,000 yearling purchased by Raut. He was one of seven US-breds in a field of eight in the Guineas.

In other news, Peter Twomey from tweeted today that a season to So You Think, who will enter stud in Australia for Coolmore, went for HK$600,000, or A$77,000, at the Prix de Hong Kong Charity Ball last night.

5 thoughts on “Curlin’s first winner”

  1. Considering how many U.S. and European bred horses are making their way to Russia, at what point will their races be deemed worthy of recognition by the International racing community? If a regionally-bred horse winning a $1,000 maiden race at Rillito in Tucson, Arizona counts as a winner, why wouldn’t a son of Curlin, Medaglia d’Oro, With Approval, et cetera count in any race at a major or similar quality track in Russia or other former Soviet Union states? I would also think
    some respect to Russia’s classic races would be paid by the cataloging authorities, if only to list the race with the dreaded “(N)” after it.

  3. I wonder what the quality of the competition was? It might be easy pickins to raqce quality bred american blood against russian rats. and who are the brood mares, after all thats an important part of the line right?

  4. I’ll bet on quality american bloodlines all day against russian rats! It will take a long time for the russian home growns to have enough quality for the byers numbers at the russian races to be contenders overall and not just because of a few good horses.

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