Curlin, preparing for a possible appearance in this month's Breeders' Cup Classic against Big Brown, worked out on Monday for the first time on the synthetic surface at San Anita racetrack.

The four-year-old son of Smart Strike covered a half-mile in a relaxed 52.80 seconds at the Arcadia, Calif., track outside Los Angeles.

Curlin, who won the Breeders' Cup Classic last year, claimed the Jockey Club Gold Cup last month at Belmont Park in New York to push his career earnings past $10 million.

Should Curlin run in the Classic, he would face Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown in one of the sport's most highly anticipated races in years.

Curlin's trainer, Steve Asmussen, said he wanted to see how his colt handled the Pro-Ride surface before deciding whether to run in the $5 million race at Santa Anita on October 25.

"He looked around quite a bit," Asmussen told reporters.

"It will be interesting the next time he gets on the track."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.