Curlin ranks among historic sires in Triple Crown

Hall of Famer Curlin figured to sire a Kentucky Derby (G1) winner one day. After furnishing a Belmont (G1) winner in his first crop and checking the Preakness (G1) box only three years later, surely the first jewel of the Triple Crown would fall into place. It took perhaps a bit longer to come to fruition, but Golden Tempo’s Derby victory finally gave Curlin a sweep of the U.S. classics as a sire.

Curlin’s impressive portfolio at stud was presaged by his own career on the racetrack. Although he was still developing in the first half of his three-year-old campaign, he competed admirably in all three jewels of the 2007 Triple Crown. Third in the Kentucky Derby, he gained revenge on Derby star Street Sense in the Preakness and just missed to champion filly Rags to Riches in the Belmont. 

Curlin excelled in the fall, clinching Horse of the Year honors in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). He would repeat as Horse of the Year at four and ultimately retire with then-record North American earnings topping $10.5 million. 

Curlin as a Triple Crown sire

Considering Curlin’s narrow loss in an epic Belmont, there’s poetic justice in the fact that he struck at his earliest opportunity as a sire in the “Test of the Champion.” His first-crop avenger was Palace Malice in the 2013 edition.

Curlin joined the club of Preakness winners to sire a winner of the middle jewel when Exaggerator reveled in the slop at Pimlico in 2016. Journalism became Curlin’s second Preakness victor in 2025, with a dramatic recovery from trouble in the nick of time. 

Exaggerator and Journalism were both moving forward from runner-up efforts in the Kentucky Derby. Curlin’s son Good Magic, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) champion, also played second fiddle in the Derby (to Triple Crown star Justify). 

While their efforts reinforced the idea that Curlin was knocking on the door in the Derby, he was temporarily upstaged by sons who had their own breakthroughs as sires. Good Magic’s son Mage pulled a 15-1 upset in the 2023 Derby, and Mage’s full brother, Dornoch, was a 17-1 surprise in the 2024 Belmont. But those were minor compared to the 80-1 stunner by Rich Strike, by Curlin’s son Keen Ice, in the 2022 Run for the Roses.

Keen Ice, famous for overturning American Pharoah in the 2015 Travers (G1), had been another of Curlin’s classic performers. He was previously third in the Belmont to Triple Crown-sweeping American Pharoah. 

Curlin’s deepening influence was clear in the 152nd Kentucky Derby. Golden Tempo’s stout rally was the headliner, but two grandsons of Curlin filled out the trifecta. Runner-up Renegade is out of Curlin’s Grade 3-winning daughter Spice Is Nice, who is bred on the same cross as Golden Tempo. Both Spice Is Nice and Golden Tempo were produced by Bernardini mares, another iteration of the potent cross of Curlin with A.P. Indy-line mares. 

Renegade wasn’t the only high-profile horse on Derby Day with Curlin as a maternal grandfather. Japanese shipper T O Elvis, who blasted to a new stakes record in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs (G1), is likewise out of a Curlin mare. 

Derby third-placer Ocelli, the 70-1 maiden, exemplifies Curlin’s role as a sire of sires. Ocelli is by Curlin’s son Connect. 

Another Connect colt, Chip Honcho, qualified for the Derby but opted to await the Preakness. Chip Honcho is trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who also had Curlin. The horseman expressed almost paternal pride in Curlin’s achievement.

“I’m extremely happy with the results of the Derby,” Asmussen told Preakness publicity. “Curlin finally got his Derby done, which is unbelievable. The horse that was second (Renegade) is out of a Curlin mare, and the horse that was third (Ocelli) is by Connect, who’s by Curlin. It was a Curlin Derby.”

By sweeping the Triple Crown races with different offspring, Curlin achieved a rare feat – even rarer than siring a single Triple Crown winner. As the tables below illustrate, it’s unusual to win all three classics without having dual winners sprinkled in somewhere. One of Curlin’s predecessors in that category is his own paternal grandsire, Mr. Prospector.  

Nearest precedents for sires with a collective Triple Crown sweep

Those lists read like a “Who’s who” of the patriarchs ensconced within U.S. pedigrees. Let’s focus on those with the nearest approximation to Curlin.  

Hail to Reason’s trio began with the Belmont score by Hail to All (1965), who prevailed by a neck over eventual divisional champion Tom Rolfe. Proud Clarion (1967) was viewed as an improbable Derby winner, springing a 30-1 upset as Hall of Famer Damascus checked in third at Churchill Downs. Personality (1970), who collared favorite My Dad George in the Preakness, went on to reign as the divisional champion (and shared Horse of the Year honors in a split decision among the polls). 

Hail to Reason remains a seminal influence, through his sons Halo (sire of breed-shaper Sunday Silence), Roberto, and Bold Reason, among others.

The stallions who subsequently echoed Hail to Reason’s achievement all belong to the Mr. Prospector tribe. Mr. Prospector turned the triple himself, followed by his paternal grandsons Unbridled (by Fappiano) and Curlin (by Smart Strike). 

Mr. Prospector’s dazzling son Conquistador Cielo ran away with the 1982 Belmont in the slop, kicking off the legendary Woody Stephens’ five consecutive wins in the third jewel. Conquistador Cielo was wheeling back five days after defeating older horses in the Metropolitan H. (G1), a double that propelled him to Horse of the Year honors. That double will presumably never happen again, with the placement of the “Met Mile” on Belmont Day and the very idea of five days’ rest being anathema to contemporary trainers. 

Mr. Prospector picked up the 1985 Preakness with Tank’s Prospect, who denied favorite Chief’s Crown to become the second of seven middle jewel heroes for the late Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. Chief’s Crown shared a dubious distinction with the aforementioned My Dad George – both were beaten favorites in all three jewels of the Triple Crown. 

Mr. Prospector’s Derby win came in 2000 with the dynamic Fusaichi Pegasus. A $4 million yearling purchase nicknamed “Superman,” he was the first favorite to win the Derby since Spectacular Bid (1979).

Ironically, the three classic winners by “Mr. P.” did not contribute as much to the proliferation of his sire line as other sons did. One of his vital conduits is Fappiano, sire of both Cryptoclearance (the male-line ancestor of Gun Runner) and Unbridled, the 1990 Derby champion.

Unbridled had been the most recent stallion to sire different victors of the three classics. His son Grindstone got up in the 1996 Derby, becoming the third of four winners for Lukas. Although Grindstone never raced again, he left a mark on the classics by siring Birdstone, who foiled Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown bid in the 2004 Belmont. Sons of Birdstone would win two-thirds of the 2009 Triple Crown: 50-1 Derby shocker Mine That Bird, and Belmont hero Summer Bird.

Unbridled’s Belmont star, Empire Maker (2003), has had an abiding influence at stud, far more than Unbridled’s Preakness winner, Red Bullet (2000). Empire Maker, second as the favorite in Funny Cide’s Derby, turned the tables on the popular gelding in the “Test of the Champion.” Two of Empire Maker’s sons also settled for runner-up honors in the Derby before siring Derby winners themselves – Bodemeister (2012) was responsible for Always Dreaming (2017), and Pioneerof the Nile (behind Mine That Bird in 2009) furnished Triple Crown sweeper American Pharoah. 

Focusing on Unbridled’s sire line obscures that he’s also the broodmare sire of another key classic influence, Tapit. 

That historical detour is important for putting Curlin in context. If he’s matched the Triple Crown feats of such indelible sires as Hail to Reason, Mr. Prospector, and Unbridled, Curlin promises to become a cornerstone of pedigrees for generations to come. Moreover, there’s still time for him to come up with a multiple classic winner that would move him into one of the other tables. Golden Tempo could take care of that resume enhancement as soon as the June 6 Belmont at Saratoga.

Curlin's classic pedigree

Curlin’s classic potency is no mystery, for he is compounding the influence of his sire, Smart Strike, and broodmare sire, Deputy Minister. Smart Strike has also sired 2010 Preakness champion Lookin at Lucky (himself the sire of 2019 Derby awardee Country House). Smart Strike’s daughters have produced Mine That Bird, Rich Strike (intensely inbred to Smart Strike, as a son of Keen Ice), and 2024 Preakness victor Seize the Grey. 

Deputy Minister has made his greatest Triple Crown impact in the Belmont. Aside from siring Touch Gold, who broke the hearts of Silver Charm fans in the 1997 edition, Deputy Minister appears as the broodmare sire of three Belmont winners – Curlin’s nemesis Rags to Riches, her half-brother Jazil (2006), and Sarava (2002). 

Deputy Minister’s son Awesome Again has carried on his classic legacy not only in his native Canada, but in the U.S. Triple Crown. Awesome Again sired Preakness winner Oxbow (2013) and Belmont scorer Sir Winston (2019), and he is notably the broodmare sire of Keen Ice (who is thereby inbred to Deputy Minister). Awesome Again’s Hall of Fame son, Ghostzapper, is the sire of three Queen’s Plate winners, but for our purposes, he’s significant as the broodmare sire of Triple Crown champion Justify. 

The future of Curlin's bloodlines

Like Smart Strike and Deputy Minister, Curlin is exerting his influence as both a sire and broodmare sire. Beyond the Triple Crown sphere, Curlin has sired eight individual Eclipse Award winners. Chief among them is 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) hero. It would be no surprise if Cody’s Wish, or Curlin’s two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) champion Elite Power, emerge as important sires in their own right, just as Good Magic has done.  

Indeed, if the parallel with Hail to Reason and Mr. Prospector holds, Curlin’s greatest legacy may come from his sons, who didn’t win Triple Crown races. To be fair, his first two classic winners have had their moments. Palace Malice sired Japanese champion Jantar Mantar and 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) victor Structor, and Exaggerator is represented by $5.8 million-earner Skippylongstocking, the 2022 Belmont third-placer who has become a gladiator in the older dirt male division. We’ll know more after Journalism and Golden Tempo begin their stud careers. 

In any event, Curlin has firmly established himself in Triple Crown history. All signs point to his enduring influence in all manner of pedigrees, whether classic performers or one-turn artists.