The maiden record of Curlis Mallet, a Thoroughbred from England, was held by the late Sir Richard Simples. Curlis lost the race and then went on to take part in twelve more, all beatable. The American stallion Steve Mathews was the first to the win, beating Curlis by one point. Since then, there has been no horse in either class that has defeated the champion.
Curlis is now trained by Richard Simples and winning is his goal – It’s a big job, though, for anyone. He has a good sized stable and does have the means to feed the pony, get him into shape and get him ready for the race. It will be interesting to see how he does against the powerful John Daley, the American master trainer. One also wonders how much stronger he would be if he had entered the competition at a higher class level.
The trainer has many years of experience in the saddle – working with equestrian stars such as Pat Parelli and Craig Mullins. He has not held a maiden for a while, though, since he lost the last of his three starts in 1990. For some reason, he has not made a maiden win in a while, but he has won at the distance before. What should be interesting to see is how he handles the younger horses at his facility. If he can hold on to this one, it may be a pretty good test of stamina and ability against the man he calls the “champ.”
There are some other horses who have raced successfully before – such as Ian Wilber, whose son, Dan, is a good second fiddle to Jo. Then there’s Peter Farquhar, who trained alongside Mallet in the United States, but never won. Bill Poulter, who trained with Mullins at Intimida, also did well, though he retired after winning at Belmont. Perhaps it will be something like that. Mallet was last seen at Belmont, where he ran well, but struggled at the fences. It will be interesting to see how he does against the top jockeys in the field.
One other note on the horses of this group is that they have six victories between them – three of them coming from the same division. So it could be that they have found something that works and improve on it, thus winning another four or five in their next four races. If so, that would put them very near the top at the moment. One horse to keep an eye out for is Kate Priscilla, who had run really well in the past, particularly at Belmont.
In the past, those in this class have been runners-up to one another – but this time there appears to be a clear favorite. This is the maiden of the year, so that is certainly something to look forward to. What will happen over the next few weeks is anyone’s guess, but you can bet it will be good. The other horse to keep an eye on is Dan Sutter, who is racing for the first time as a true horse player.
He has done quite well at the tracks so far, but is yet to win a race in this division.