Cigar and trainer Bill Mott after the horse tied the modern U.S. record of 16 straight wins. Horsephotos.com photo
(Also, Q&A with Jerry Bailey on Cigar, who made the Hall of Fame jockey fall in love with horses)
I remember watching the simulcast of the 1995 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park, where reigning Horse of the Year Holy Bull was a prohibitive favorite.
In a shocking turn of events, Holy Bull was pulled up in distress midway through the Grade I race. At the time, the winner was a footnote to the news that Holy Bull had a career-ending injury. History would show it also was the start of a brilliant career for Cigar, who died Tuesday evening at age 24 at Lexington’s famed Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital from complications following surgery for severe osteoarthritis in his neck.
Cigar, who resided at the Kentucky Horse Park from 1999 on after having fertility problems at stud, was sort of a reverse John Henry, his career fortunes changing dramatically once taken off the turf and put on dirt. Though he won on dirt in his second start, Cigar went 1 for 11 after being put on turf, that coming in an entry-level allowance race. When Bill Mott put him back on dirt for a second-level allowance, he won by eight and never tried grass again. That also was the start of his tying Citation’s modern-day record of 16 straight wins by U.S.-based horse.
“He’s a horse that changed my life…. in so many ways,” Mott said Wednesday evening. “He came around at a time that he was able to sort of boost my career and keep it going. Because of him, we were able to go so many places and meet so many great people. He did a lot more than just win races for us.”
Win #2 in The Streak was the Grade I NYRA Mile, now called the Cigar Mile, with the Donn being his fourth straight.
Cigar brought us many magical moments.
You can’t get any bigger than traveling to Dubai for the first running of the then $4 million Dubai World Cup in 1996. Churchill Downs opened Sports Spectrum (later renamed Trackside) off Poplar Level Road early so fans could watch and bet the world’s richest race. Wearing the late Allen Paulson’s red, white and blue silks, Cigar led an American sweep, with Soul of the Matter a half-length back and L’Carriere third. There were a lot of wet eyes in that enthusiastic crowd watching in Louisville.
But even before that, owner Allen Paulson – who named Cigar for an aviation check point – was intent on showcasing his horse around the country. As a 4-year-old, Cigar extended his streak from Florida (Donn and Grade I Gulfstream Park Handicap) to Arkansas (Grade I Oaklawn Park Handicap) to Maryland (Grade I Pimlico Special) to Massachusetts (the revived Massachusetts Handicap) to California (Grade I Hollywood Gold Cup) and finally back to Mott’s New York base to sweep the Grade I Woodward (then at Belmont), Jockey Club Gold Cup (over a field that included 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Thunder Gulch) and then end his year 10 for 10 with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Now that’s a Horse of the Year campaign — an unbeaten season that we’ll go a long time before seeing again.
“When we went to Oaklawn, that was really a star-studded field,” Mott said. “He beat that group and looked like the real deal. I told my assistants, ‘We better pay attention to this because I don’t think we’ll see anything like this for a long time.’ That’s kind of how it turned out.”
Cigar repeated in the ’96 Donn, serving as a prep for Dubai.
History also shows that the trip to the UAE can be very hard on a horse, and some never rebound. Cigar in his next start repeated in the MassCap, carrying 133 pounds. Maybe the storied race wasn’t graded. But attracting Cigar gave instant respect and credibility to the struggling Suffolk Downs (long known as Sufferin’ Downs).
Cigar was at Win #15 and Arlington Park owner Dick Duchossois badly wanted to lure the horse to his Chicago track for his record-tying effort, staging the Citation Challenge with enough purse money that it wasn’t a bunch of pushovers.
Cigar won, carrying 130 pounds, to beat Dramatic Gold by 3-1/2 lengths, with Eltish third. The purse was $750,000, though it grossed more than $1 million with incentives, and it was hardly a cupcake race. Others in the field of 10 included Met Mile winner Honour and Glory and Unbridled’s Song (admittedly far from his best and finishing second to last), with seven horses coming in off wins from across the country, including Churchill Downs’ Stephen Foster winner Tenants Harbor (who finished fifth). Finishing last (and getting paid $5,000 for the effort) was 1995 Blue Grass winner Wild Syn (just to recall a blast from the past).
Then it was back to California for Del Mar’s Pacific Classic – which proved a reminder that any horse can get beat on any day. Cigar — at 1-10 odds, the fans jamming the seaside track to see history in the making – was part of a torrid pace, the mile going in 1:33.66. He weakened to second, with Dare and Go winning by 3-1/2 lengths.
Though Cigar seemed back in top form by repeating in the Woodward by four lengths in his next start, his age (by then 6) and aggressive campaign seemed to take a toll. He lost the Jockey Club Gold Cup by a head to another future Horse of the Year, Skip Away, and then was third by a total of a head behind Alphabet Soup and Preakness winner Louis Quatorze, in his Breeders’ Cup Classic defense in Toronto.
And that was it: 19 victories in 33 starts, with four seconds and five thirds, for earnings totaling $9,999,815. Paulson resisted any temptation to run once more to try to make him America’s first $10 million horse.
Eleven of Cigar’s victories were in Grade I races.
I thought Mott’s favorite race might be the Dubai World Cup, but he says it was that Breeders’ Cup Classic in New York. “Interestingly enough, that was Tom Durkin’s personal favorite call as well.”
Mott was asked about that first Donn Handicap against Holy Bull.
“I thought we were certainly in with a chance,” he said. “The way the outcome was with Cigar and looking back, you’d have had to say that had Holy Bull been OK, it may have been a heck of a horse race.”
Cigar was to be buried on the park’s Memorial Walk of Champions, near thoroughbreds Alysheba, Bold Forbes, Forego, John Henry and Kona Gold; Standardbreds Cam Fella and Rambling Willie; American saddlebreds Imperator, Skywatch and Gypsy Supreme, and American quarter horse Sgt. Pepper Feature.
That might be the world’s most impressive equine graveyard, taking into account all breeds – quite a deserving resting place for a great champ.
In a Facebook post, Madeleine Pickens, Allen’s widow, wrote: “It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to a part of our family. World-champion and 16 consecutive winne #racehorse, #Cigar, has passed away. He was truly one-of-a-kind and he will be greatly missed by not only our family, but so many that followed his impressive career! Thank you all for your kind messages. Xo”
