For the most part, the great American-based fillies and mares of the last few decades were stars who beat the boys in Triple Crown races or major Grade 1 stakes on dirt.
For the past 75-plus years, the Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup have been proving grounds for a long list of Thoroughbred racing’s greatest champions.
Some horses, though, have transcended the sport’s most famous stages.
Just about the only thing Curlin did not do in his fabulous racing career was end “The Curse of Apollo.”
A horse who did not race at 2 had not won the Kentucky Derby since the aforementioned Apollo all the way back in 1882, and Curlin gave it the old college try to end the jinx that Triple Crown winner Justify eventually halted in 2018.
Curlin made his debut on Feb. 3, 2003 and then ran third three months later in the Kentucky Derby.
In horse racing, margin of victory is usually measured in lengths, which might seem like an imprecise measure but over time has come to be standardized as the length of a horse from nose to tail, about eight feet. Ten lengths then is 80 feet, just a couple of feet longer than a tennis court. In 2006, 80 feet was the measure of a star, a 2-year-old colt who would make history on the first Saturday in May a few months later.
