LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A sale to buy a minority interest in Horse of the Year Curlin failed to produce an acceptable offer.

The sale was by sealed bid, and the next step is a private sale of the 20 percent stake in the career money winner among North American horses.

A state judge had ordered the minority share of Curlin be sold to help satisfy a $42 million judgment against the horse's minority owners, William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham. Prospective buyers had until Wednesday to submit the bid.

A trustee appointed to oversee the sale rejected an undisclosed number of sealed bids. The trustee, Sylvius von Saucken, could not be reached by The Associated Press today.

The 80 percent majority interest held by winemaker Jess Jackson isn't affected by the sale. Kevin McGee, vice president of Stonestreet Stables, which owns the 80 percent majority of the horse, said Jackson will wait to see what happens in a private sale.

"We would hope it would happen quickly," McGee said.

Curlin is stabled at Churchill Downs following a fourth-place finish in last month's Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

Cunningham and Gallion bought Curlin for $57,000 in 2004 through their Midnight Cry Stables. They sold a majority interest to a group led by Jackson in 2005. Jackson has since bought out the other investors.

Cunningham and Gallion are charged with bilking clients out of more than $90 million in a settlement over the diet drug fen-phen. Their first trial ended in a mistrial; a third attorney, Melbourne Mills Jr., who had no financial stake in Curlin, was acquitted. A retrial is set for February.

The $42 million judgment stems from a lawsuit brought by more than 400 former clients of Gallion and Cunningham. The former clients are seeking compensation, contending Cunningham and Gallion kept more of the $200 million settlement than they were entitled to.