Champion racehorses Curlin and Ashado, jockey Alex Solis, and trainer Gary
Curlin, bred in Kentucky and owned by Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables
Curlin, who was trained for the majority of his career by Steve Asmussen, did
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Ashado, bred in Kentucky and owned by Starlight Stables, Paul Saylor and
Johns Martin, won 12 of her 21 career starts with purse earnings of $3,931,440.
She was named champion three-year-old filly in 2004 and champion older female in
2005.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Ashado won the Spinaway, Schuylerville and
Demoiselle as a two-year-old in 2003. She compiled a record of 4-1-1 and
earnings of $610,800 in six starts that year. At three, she won the Breeders’
Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Fair Grounds Oaks and
Cotillion Handicap en route to a ledger of 5-2-1 and earnings of $2,259,640 in
eight starts that year. In her final season, at age four in 2005, Ashado won the
Go for Wand Handicap, Ogden Phipps Handicap and Beldame. She finished 3-1-1 with
earnings of $1,061,000 in seven starts that year.
Solis, 50, who is closing in on 5,000 career victories (he has 4,986 through
Thursday), ranks ninth all time in purse earnings with $234,981,821 and 30th in
wins. In a career that began in 1982, Solis, a native of Panama City, Panama,
has won 321 graded stakes and 633 overall stakes. He has won three Breeders’ Cup
races, including the 2003 Classic with Pleasantly Perfect. Solis won the 1986
Preakness, as well as seven other graded stakes, with champion Snow Chief.
Major victories for Solis include multiple editions of the Santa Anita Derby,
Florida Derby, Hollywood Derby, Norfolk, Hollywood Futurity, Santa Monica
Handicap, Hollywood Turf Cup, Yellow Ribbon, Charles Whittingham Handicap, Eddie
Read Handicap and Shoemaker Mile, among others. He has also won the Dubai World
Cup, Pacific Classic, Santa Anita Handicap, Haskell Invitational, Secretariat,
Manhattan Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Carter Handicap, among others.
The winner of 18 riding titles on the Southern California circuit, Solis won
the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1997. He won 11 stakes races with
champion Kona Gold, including the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Other notable mounts for
Solis include Criminal Type, Bertrando, Jewel Princess, Timber Country, The
Wicked North, Pleasant Tap, Victory Gallop, Megahertz, Dare and Go, Brother
Derek, After Market, Flat Out and Magical Fantasy.
Jones, 69, won 1,465 races and had purse earnings of $52,672,611 in a career
that spanned from 1975 to 1996. He won 102 graded stakes and 233 overall stakes.
A native of Long Beach, California, Jones trained 104 stakes-winning horses,
including Turkoman, the 1986 champion older male. Jones won 15 meet titles on
the Southern California circuit, including four at Santa Anita, where he ranks
sixth all time in wins (576) and seventh in stakes victories (72). He set a
record with 47 wins at Santa Anita in 1976, surpassing the previous standard of
44 established by his father, Farrell Jones. At Hollywood Park, Jones ranks 13th
all time in wins (463) and 10th in stakes victories (58). He also won 17 stakes
at Del Mar, including the inaugural Pacific Classic with Hall of Famer Best Pal
in 1991.
Jones saddled Turkoman to victories in the Marlboro Cup, Widener Handicap and
Oaklawn Handicap in his 1986 championship season. Jones twice won the signature
handicap in California, the Santa Anita Handicap, with Best Pal and Stuka. Along
with the Pacific Classic and Santa Anita Handicap, Jones trained Best Pal to
wins in the Oaklawn Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, Swaps Stakes and Strub Stakes.
Jones trained Kostroma to a world turf record of 1:43 4/5 in the 1 1/8-mile
Las Palmas Handicap at Santa Anita, sent out Time to Explode to equal a world
record of 1:19 2/5 at Hollywood and conditioned Beautiful Glass to a
five-furlong track mark of :55 4/5 at Hollywood. Other major victories for Jones
include the Mother Goose, Santa Barbara Handicap, Hollywood Oaks, Del Mar
Futurity, Hollywood Futurity, Yellow Ribbon, Apple Blossom Handicap, San Antonio
Handicap, La Brea, San Felipe, Santa Anita Oaks, NYRA Mile, Milady Handicap,
Fantasy, Californian and Norfolk, among others. Other notable horses trained by
Jones include Quiet American, Wishing Well, Lakeway, By Land by Sea, Fali Time,
Radar Ahead, Eleven Stitches and Lightning Mandate.
The contemporary electees were chosen from a nationwide voting panel
comprised of 185 racing writers, broadcasters, industry officials and historians
from a group of nine finalists selected by the Hall of Fame’s Nominating
Committee.
Results of the Hall of Fame’s Historic Review process, which examines
candidates who have not been active within the past 25 years, will be announced
in May. Results of the Pillars of the Turf election process, which honors
individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to Thoroughbred racing in
a leadership or pioneering capacity at the highest national level, will be
announced in June.
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