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| CURLIN |
| Reed Palmer photo |
by Jeff Lowe
A Kentucky judge has denied a motion requesting the sale of Horse of the Year Curlin.
Attorney Angela Ford had filed the motion on Sunday in Boone Circuit Court on behalf of 420 Fen-Phen clients who are in line to gain a 20% interest in the four-year-old colt after successfully suing their former attorneys, William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., in a civil case.
Gallion and Cunningham own the 20% interest through their wholly-controlled corporation, Tandy, that races as Midnight Cry Stables. Tandy owns all of multiple Grade 1 winner Einstein (Brz).
The verdict in the civil case was for $42-million, and Kentucky Judge Roger Crittenden indicated in April that the Fen-Phen clients would be entitled to Tandy assets, but Crittenden has not yet issued a formal ruling.
Ford filed a motion for partition that would have forced all of Curlin’s ownership interests to be sold, including Stonestreet Stables’s 80% majority interest.
Richard Getty, an attorney for Stonestreet, opposed the motion.
“It was premature, since they didn’t have standing,” Crittenden said on Friday morning. “Number two, they didn’t present any evidence other than allegations that [Curlin] would be worth more if he was sold as whole.”
Crittenden said he hopes to issue the formal ruling on the Fen-Phen clients’s right to the assets. He will consult with counsel in a hearing on July 24.
“I want to talk with all counsel about what kind of form it might very well take from what I order on the sale of Tandy,” Crittenden said. “I haven’t decided in my own mind which is the best way to go. … I’ve asked them to tell me what the alternatives are, based upon what my decision is—what that means for the corporation. I want to maximize the value to the plaintiffs and the value to the defendants, because it’s in everybody’s interest that the value of that corporation is maximized.”
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
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