Curlin's Honor gets needed experience – and a win

Trainer Mark Casse has another talented Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old who has come a little late to the party along the Triple Crown trail.

The Casse-trained Curlin’s Honor ran his career record to two wins from two starts, overcoming trouble and a layoff of more than four months to win a first-level allowance race Sunday. He joins the barn’s debut winner Telekinesis as clearly talented young horses under the care of assistant trainer David Carroll this winter in New Orleans.

Neither Curlin’s Honor’s margin of victory (a neck), nor his final six-furlong time (1:11.62) or the 78 Beyer Speed Figure it produced told the whole tale of his performance.

Racing between horses much of the trip, Curlin’s Honor and Corey Lanerie got stuck behind a wall of rivals in midstretch. Lanerie finally gave up trying to find a hole, steered outside, and Curlin’s Honor accelerated rapidly to just get up. Lanerie then urged his mount out strongly around the far turn and onto the backstretch, an extra bit of post-race work.

“I think he got three races of experience from that,” Casse said. “We had talked about the gallop-out, but in the end it wasn’t really planned. Corey felt like with all the trouble he had, he wanted to make him go ahead and go on out.”

Curlin’s Honor caught the eye long before he won his career debut, a Keeneland sprint, over the decent colt Fascilitator last fall. He fetched $475,000 at a yearling auction and was pinhooked last May for $1.5 million at a breeze-up sale. Casse trains Curlin’s Honor, a son of Curlin and the Stormin Fever mare Franscat, for John Oxley and Breeze Easy LLC.

“I wasn’t crazy about how he was doing last fall,” Casse said. “He’s come back good. The time off let him develop some. He really changed a lot, lengthened out. In the fall, he looked more a sprinter type, but now he looks like a horse that would get some ground.”

Casse said there are “several options” for Curlin’s Honor, mentioning the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn and the Lexington at Keeneland as particular possibilities.

Telekinesis is one race and one win behind Curlin’s Honor, but appears to be at least as talented. His flashy debut win Feb. 9 produced a 90 Beyer, and Telekinesis, an Ontario-bred son of Ghostzapper, had his first work since the race when he went a half-mile in 47.80 on Saturday.

“He worked super,” Casse said. “We’re looking for a one-other-than around two turns. When and where it comes I’m not sure yet.”