Nothing new on Cunningham's distinguished chair, but there is this...

Judge Says Curlin Has New Owners

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Breeders' Cup Classic winner Curlin has more than 400 new owners, and is up for sale, too.

A state judge has given the plaintiffs, in a lawsuit against three lawyers, the right to claim part ownership of the 3-year-old colt who has earned more than $5.1 million on the track.

Judge William Wehr said the plaintiffs can make the claim through Midnight Cry Stables, the company used by attorneys Shirley Cunningham Jr. and William Gallion to buy the horse for $57,000.

Cunningham and Gallion own a 20 percent stake in Preakness Stakes winner Curlin, who won the Classic on Saturday under Midnight Cry Stables' blue and black colors. Curlin was third in the Kentucky Derby and second in the Belmont Stakes. and is likely to voted Horse of the Year.

The attorney for the 400-plus plaintiffs said the horse is now for sale, which prompted the move to claim Cunningham and Gallion's assets...

This from the Associated press.

Shirley Cunningham's chair: the cost of distinction

Few people get to enjoy the distinction of an endowed chair.

Fewer still get to stand in the winner's circle following their thoroughbred's amazing victory in a world-class race.

Shirley Cumnmingham Jr has done both.

He apparently had the cash on hand, so he bought the chair.

He apparently had the cash on hand, so he bought the colt.

But after watching Curlin win a Gulfstream Park race by 12 3/4 lengths, he sold an 80 percent interest in the colt for a reported $3.5 million, retaining a 20 percent interest. Not exactly the deal of the century; Curlin has gone on to win 6 of 9 starts since February.

Cunningham got to be there for the Preakness, but he had to miss Curlin's winner's circle celebration in the $5 million Breeder's Cup Classic. Since August he has been incarcerated in Boone County Jail, awaiting the Jan. 7 start of a criminal trial.

So much for the horse.

But now, federal prosecutors say they will prove that Cunningham funded a $1 million scholarship at Florida A & M University with some of the $46 million he and two other lawyers allegedly obtained fraudulently from his clients in Kentucky's fen-phen case.

The Courier-Journal reported in February that the Florida Department of Financial Services concluded Cunningham did no work to justify a $100,000-a-year "distinguished chair of law" that he demanded in exchange for the scholarship gift, but charges were never filed. The university paid him $193,243 in salary and benefits from 2003 to 2005.

Cunningham's lawyers are worried that evidence of the distinguished chair might "inflame the jury" and want it suppressed.

I guess we're all about to learn just how distinguished a lawyer Cunningham is.