2007 Horse of the Year, Curlin will make his first ever start on the turf in Saturday’s $500,000 Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park. Curlin is being prepped for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France in October.

He should get a good test on Saturday in the Man o’ War with Better Talk Now and Red Rocks as part of the field. Curlin has won his last five races overall and is thought of as the best horse in the world.

"I think the question we want answered this weekend is if he's the caliber to be considered for the Arc on the turf," trainer Steve Asmussen said.

"Two previous Breeders' Cup Turf winners in the race will definitely give us that measure. We don't want to kid ourselves about his turf form before we do something as serious as venturing to France. We're definitely going to get our wish and get a true test of his turf ability."

The change to the turf is something very rare with a horse of Curlin’s quality. Most top races horses stay with either dirt or turf but the greatness of Curlin could raise another notch if he dominates on the turf.

It took almost a month, but Big Brown is back on the track. For the first time since being pulled up in the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown had a workout. He breezed five furlongs at Aqueduct and the workout was nothing to write home about.

His time was 1:06.73 over a fast track.

The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner is set to race next in the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 3rd.

Regular exercise rider Michelle Nevin was aboard Big Brown for the workout. “I told Michelle I don’t want to him to go too fast, I’d rather him go slower than faster,” trainer Rick Dutrow said.

“The horse looks like he’s fine. I can’t tell you that we got any problems. He’s good right now; he’s cooling out good drinking his water, looks like he’s happy, so we’re good.”

Nevin was not quite as encouraging as Dutrow saying, “Nothing special. Basic stuff.”  Big Brown is working out with new shoes on all four feet. Ian Ian McKinlay put on the front shoes, while Alex Leaf put on the rear ones.

“Ian said his feet look great, Alex said his back feet look very good, so it’s all good,” Dutrow said.