When Curlin retired to stud in 2008, hopes were high that the 2007 Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, who was also third in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Belmont Stakes, could produce horses that would follow in his hoofprints and win route dirt races at the highest level. Palace Malice, Vino Rosso, Exaggerator, and Malathaat certainly proved that the son of Smart Strike was capable of doing just that, but in son Elite Power, Curlin showed something entirely different: that he could produce sprinters as well.

Elite Power showed the versatility of his pedigree when this powerful colt turned in back-to-back winning performances in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, demonstrating that fast horses come in a variety of packages.

Bred in the Purple

Winning his first stakes race, the 2022 Vosburgh in New York. (Janet Garaguso/NYRA)

Elite Power come by his ability honestly: in addition to having a dual Horse of the Year sire, his dam Broadway’s Alibi was a stakes winner as well, winning the seven-furlong Forward Gal Stakes and the one-mile Comely Stakes before finishing second to Believe You Can by three-quarters of a length in the 2012 Kentucky Oaks. Racing for breeder E. Paul Robsham, Broadway’s Alibi went through the sales ring when Robsham’s widow Joyce dispersed of their bloodstock in 2015 and sold to Jon Clay’s Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million. In 2017, Clay sent this daughter of Vindication to the court of Curlin, and in 2018, the dark bay mare foaled a gorgeous chestnut colt with a wide white blaze and three white socks.

That colt went through the auction ring at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and hammered down at $900,000 to Prince Khalid bin Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms. Juddmonte’s team named him Elite Power and sent him to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Since the colt sported a pedigree of two winners at one mile or longer, the stable anticipated that they were getting a horse who would compete at classic distances. Instead, they found that this runner’s specialty was going shorter – that is, if they could get him to the races. Shin issues kept Elite Power off the racetrack until his 3-year-old season, when he debuted in a six-furlong maiden special weight test at Churchill Downs in late September 2021, seven months after Prince Khalid died at age 85. He finished sixth that day, and Elite Power would need four starts to post his first win, two of those starts in his 3-year-old season and then two more to start the following year at age 4.

Elite Power’s breakthrough came in a seven-furlong race at Churchill in late June, where he rolled by nine lengths; he followed that up with allowance wins at a mile and then six furlongs before Mott tried the colt in his first stakes, the Grade 2 Vosburgh during the fall 2022 Belmont at the Big A (Aqueduct) meet. Facing a short field of four others, Elite Power sat off the pace through the first half-mile and then moved to the front after a slow :47.68, powering to a 5 ¾-length win. The Vosburgh was also a Win & You’re In qualifying race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. After four consecutive wins, Elite Power headed to Keeneland Race Course for the six-furlong championship test, where he was going to face much tougher company than he had before.

It was time to see what Elite Power was made of.

Golden Twice Over

Taking his first BC Sprint at Keeneland in 2022. (Eclipse Sportswire)

The waters were much deeper for the chestnut colt at Keeneland. The 2022 Sprint included Aloha West, 2021’s Sprint victor; multiple Grade 1 stakes winner Jackie’s Warrior; and the filly Kimari, also a multiple graded stakes winner. Breaking from the middle of the field, post 6 of 11, Elite Power and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. were seventh after the first quarter-mile, sixth after the first half-mile, and then went five wide on the far turn to drive down the track and pass C Z Rocket in the last furlong to win by 1 ¼ lengths in a final time of 1:09.11.

After going from maiden to Breeders’ Cup winner in five starts, Elite Power took home the Eclipse Award for Champion Male Sprinter. "When we bought the colt we were dreaming of a mile-and-a-quarter and the Kentucky Derby, but he's so brilliant sprinting," Juddmonte’s general manager Garrett O'Rourke told BloodHorse. "Anytime you buy a horse at that kind of expense there's a lot on the line, so it's great to get rewarded."

In 2023 at age 5, Elite Power was put on the path toward a second Breeders’ Cup Sprint try. Bill Mott first sent him to Saudi Arabia to try the Riyadh Dirt Sprint Presented by Sports Boulevard, and there Elite Power overwhelmed a field that included Grade 1 winner Gunite to show that he was the best dirt sprinter in the world. Returning to the U.S., he first won the Grade 2 True North Stakes and then the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes over Gunite, passing that foe late to prevail by a head. After three wins to start off 2023, Elite Power faced Gunite once again in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in late August. In that seven-furlong race, Gunite took the lead from the break while Elite Power sat just off the pace, waiting until the stretch to make his bid. This time, though, the son of Curlin did not have enough to catch his younger rival, losing his final pre-Breeders’ Cup start by 1 ¾ lengths.

Winging out to California for his final start and a repeat bid in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Elite Power arrived at Santa Anita Park as the morning-line favorite over Gunite and Golden State stalwarts Speed Boat Beach, The Chosen Vron, and Dr. Schivel. Speed Boat Beach took the lead early in the Sprint, directing the field through splits of :21.99 for a quarter mile and :44.35 for a half-mile. Elite Power lay in third under Irad Ortiz, went four-wide on the far turn, and then powered down the stretch to win by 1 ½ lengths at odds of 1.70-1, blazing six furlongs in 1:08.34. After winning a second Eclipse for Champion Sprinter, Elite Power retired a two-time Breeders’ Cup champion and joined Juddmonte’s American stallion band in Kentucky.

With his wins in the 2022 and 2023 Sprints, Elite Power joined the likes of Tiznow, Bayakoa, Miesque, Cody’s Wish, and other elite horses as repeat winners at the Breeders’ Cup World Championship. To honor his accomplishments, this year NYRA renamed the six-furlong Runhappy Stakes after Elite Power and moved it to Aqueduct’s fall meet fall calendar, where the Grade 3 race will be held on Dec. 6.

As one of the best male dirt sprinters of the 21^st century sporting nine wins in his final 10 starts, Elite Power showed the versatility of his sire’s genetics, a strapping colt that could excel in one-turn races alongside other Curlin-sired standouts like Cody’s Wish and Obligatory. Now at stud for owner Juddmonte, Elite Power has the chance to pass on those distinguished genes to new generations of Breeders’ Cup hopefuls.