Horse of the Year Curlin is scheduled to work five-eighths of a mile between races on Monday on Santa Anita Park’s synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

Trainer Steve Asmussen plans to pre-enter Curlin on Tuesday in the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on October 25 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita. The Smart Strike colt earned Eclipse Awards last year as Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old male after winning six of his nine starts, including a victory in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic Powered by Dodge.

Curlin is slated to work in company with stablemate Hawaii Calls. The workout is scheduled to take place at approximately 2:45 p.m. PDT between races four and five on a special Columbus Day card at Santa Anita.

“Our biggest concern with Curlin is the difference in the way that the track plays between morning and afternoon,” said Scott Blasi, Asmussen’s assistant. “This is going to be a smooth five-eighths in company. We’ll come up the track in the quarter-mile shoot and just jog off from there and break off at the five-eighths pole.”

Curlin won the Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) in his previous start on September 27 at Belmont Park. The four-year-old colt breezed four furlongs in :52.80 at Santa Anita on October 6.

“His serious work here at Santa Anita will be on Monday,” Blasi said. “It’ll be a normal five-eighths work. We’re not looking for anything real fast, but it’ll be done the way we do things normally.”

For more stories on Curlin's road to the Breeders' Cup, click here.