Boo-boys set to round on Curlin

Should Curlin, the 7-2 second favourite, take the $5million Classic at Monmouth Park, there is every chance he will be booed by a section of the 40,000 crowd.

Only once in its 24-year history, at Belmont Park in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 atrocity, has booing been heard at America's famous meeting.

Classic case: Curlin and Robby Alborado

Outrageously, the Godolphin horses were jeered and barracked by an ignorant and racist section of the grandstand unaware that Sheik Mohammed had donated all his (over $3m) prizemoney to the victims of the terrorist attack.

This time the antipathy to Curlin has been generated by the actions of two of his owners, William Gallion, 56, and Shirley Cunningham Jnr, 52, who are in the Boone County Jail, Kentucky.

These men, both attorneys, had their law licences suspended by the Kentucky Bar Council in August 2006 following an investigation into the action they brought against the manufacturers of fen-phen, an anti-obesity drug.

They won the original action in 2001 that resulted in a $200m settlement on behalf of 400 clients. But, they stand accused of embezzling $42 million and a civil suit - demanding the deficit and $20.1 million in interest - was taken out against the pair and a third lawyer not involved with Curlin.

A court case to settle the matter and to determine how the money will be distributed was scheduled for October 15, but Gallion and Cunningham appealed for the case to be delayed until after the Breeders' Cup.

US District Judge William Bertelsman agreed on a date in January, 2008, but insisted the men remain incarcerated because of a serious risk that funds might be moved off-shore and the defendants might flee to a country which has no extradition treaty with the US.

So the men will watch Saturday's compelling nine-horse race, which includes George Washington, Street Sense and Hard Spun - the latter two first and second in this year's Kentucky Derby with Curlin third - on a prison TV.

Curlin, a big, long-striding chesnut who is ridden by Robby Alborado, had his revenge on Street Sense in the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, before being narrowly beaten by Michael Tabor's Rags To Riches in the Belmont Stakes.

He has had one race at Monmouth, one of America's tightest tracks, when he was third in the Haskell Invitational Handicap on August 5 behind Any Given Saturday and Hard Spun, both of whom reoppose in the Classic.

Since then, however, he has won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, beating Saturday's likely favourite, Lawyer Ron, by a neck.

He is trained by Cash Asmussen's brother, Steve, whose assistant Scott Blasi was in an upbeat mood after the colt had worked nicely on the dirt on Wednesday.

"He is in super shape and has shipped real well," he said. "When he was beaten in the Haskell he was coming off a tough campaign and was a bit flat that day.

"It was hard for him to make up the ground over a mile and an eighth (nine furlongs).

"He galloped a mile this morning and is in top condition. It's not for me to comment on ownership issues and I wouldn't do so."

Gallion and Cunningham face a potential 20 years in jail if found guilty.

Even the ownership of Curlin - a bargain-buy $57,000 at Keeneland - is under review as it has been claimed the purchase was made with illicit funds.

The men have since sold shares in Curlin to leading US owners Satish Seemar, Jess Jackson and George Bolton for $3.5m after the colt's maiden win at Gulfstream Park in February this year. He never raced at two.

The winner of the Classic is almost certain to become America's Horse of the Year, but a large number of locals are praying that this great honour is not bestowed a horse whose owners may have a dubious past.