One of the owners of likely Horse of the Year Curlin claims the recent order handed down by a Kentucky judge only affects the minority interest of embattled attorneys William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr.
An attorney representing Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stables issued a statement Nov. 2 clarifying the position of the owner-partner.
"The order ... entered by Judge (William) Wehr in Boone County circuit court applies only to the 20% interest in Curlin owed by Mr. Gallion and Mr. Cunningham through Tandy LLC. That entity has done business using the name Midnight Cry Stables," Lexington-based attorney Richard Getty said. "The order has absolutely has no effect in the other ownership interests in Curlin, none of which have been sold."
Getty declined to comment further, other than to say: "We are evaluating the overall situation."
An attorney representing the fen-phen plaintiffs suggested on the day of the ruling that Curlin would be sold, possibly at public auction. "All of the partners in Curlin believe that their interests are best served by selling the horse now," attorney Angela Ford said at the time.
Contacted Nov. 2, Ford said she stands by the statement. "That's what I was led to believe," she said. "I guess maybe things can change."
Ford said she still believes the clients are entitled to a 20% interest in Curlin, including possible purse money from certain race earnings and/or proceeds from the sale of the colt. Curlin, who won the Breeders' Cup Classic - Powered by Dodge (gr. I) at Monmouth Park Oct. 27, is also owned in part by Satish and Anne Sanan's Padua Stables, and George Bolton.
Wehr on Nov. 1 signed an order giving Gallion and Cunningham's ownership to more than 400 persons involved in a lawsuit involving the diet drug fen-phen. Gallion, Cunningham, and fellow attorney Melbourne Mills Jr. -- who is not a Curlin partner -- are accused of taking $64 million that should have gone to their clients in the $200-million settlement of the diet drug case. A judgment of $42 million was previously ordered in a civil suit.
The three attorneys are incarcerated in a Boone County jail as part of a separate federal criminal action.
