by Pete Denk

An attorney representing the 420 Fen-Phen clients who have a 20% interest in Horse of the Year Curlin have filed a motion in Kentucky circuit court attempting to force the sale of the four-year-old Smart Strike colt.

Attorney Angela Ford filed a motion for partition in Boone Circuit Court, 54th Judicial District, on Sunday.

“My clients don’t have any interest in owning, managing, feeding, or training a racehorse,” Ford said. “Their immediate needs are for medical expenses and being paid damages they are entitled to.”

The Fen-Phen clients gained a stake in Curlin by suing their former attorneys William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., who represented them in their case against the makers of the diet drug Fen-Phen and are accused of bilking them of $65-million in settlement funds.

Richard Getty, who represents Curlin’s majority owner Jess Jackson, referred to Ford’s motion as “absurd.”

“You’re going to force the sale of the 80% interest in a horse so that the 20% interest can supposedly maximize its value?” Getty said. “The market, in the form of fully informed bidders, will determine what is a fair price for that 20% interest.”

Getty said it is possible that the 20% interest could be offered at a major horse auction this fall, although he pointed out that Jackson has right of first refusal and is likely to execute it on any reasonable offers.

“There’s absolutely no legal basis for the relief she has requested,” Getty said. “There’s a contractual provision that clearly states that the right of partition has been waived. There’s no legitimate basis for an uninformed tail to wag the rest of the dog by forcing someone who owns 80% of the horse to sell the entire horse prematurely.”

The motion could be argued as early as Thursday. Getty said on Tuesday that he was in the process of forming a response.

“We expect this motion to be dismissed,” Getty said. “The motion filed by Ms. Ford is not supported by applicable case law and totally disregards existing contractual rights which were bargained and paid for by the group that acquired 80% of Curlin in February of 2007.”

The Keeneland September yearling sale is one of the auctions that the 20% interest could be offered, although Keeneland’s Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell said there have not been any recent discussions about selling any or all of Curlin at a Keeneland sale.

“We’re always in the market to sell horses,” Russell said. “We have never done a percentage sale, but it’s a new world and we would try to do anything to accommodate.”

Pete Denk is sales editor of Thoroughbred Times