Despite finishing a disappointing fourth in this year's breeders cup classic the hot money is on US favorite Curlin to take the horse of the year title with an almost perfect season behind this record-breaking thoroughbred. When you consider that the horse had won the Stephen Foster, the Woodward and the Jockey club Gold cup, not to mention more than $5 million in earnings (taking the horse's career total to $10 million) there really is no other horse to compete on the same level.
With rumours that Curlin we'll be retired at the end of this year it should be interesting to see which horses come to the fore in 2009 when the US horse racing industry will be without Big Brown and Curlin. One horse to watch out for next year may be Zenyatta which is probably the only horse to even come anywhere near Curlin for this year's horse of the year award.
As we look towards the US horse racing classics next year it looks as though the European threat is set to increase yet again after taking the first three places in the recent breeders cup classic. After a period of American dominance it looks as though European horses are set to prosper on US soil as they did so many years ago.
