Cigar (horse)
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Cigar, born April 18, 1990 at Country Life Farm near Bel Air, Maryland, is a Hall of Fame thoroughbred racehorse.
A product of Maryland's oldest thoroughbred breeding farm, Cigar is the grandson of The Minstrel who was the son of the greatest sire of the second half of the 20th century, Northern Dancer. Out of the mare Solar Slew, who in turn was a daughter of the 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, Cigar had the credentials to become a great race horse, but it took a few years for his greatness to materialize.
Owned by Allen E. Paulson, Cigar did not race as a two year old, and under trainer Alex Hassinger he made an unsuccessful debut in early 1993 in a six furlong (1,207 meter) race on a dirt track in California. After gaining his first win a few months later, his trainer switched him to racing on grass but the horse proved mediocre at best. The following year, his owner had Cigar shipped to an east-coast trainer, Bill Mott, who gave him the first half of the year off, only bringing him back to racing in July. After more disappointing results it was decided to give Cigar one more try racing on dirt, and on his first time back, at Aqueduct Racetrack, he made an astonishing about-face, winning easily against quality competition.
For the following year's racing season, Cigar proved to be the best horse in North America, winning all ten major races he entered under jockey Jerry Bailey, including the Pimlico Special. Cigar capped off the year with an October victory in the $3 million U.S. Breeders' Cup Classic while setting a stakes record of 1:59.58 for the 1 1/4 mile (2012 meter) distance. That year, Cigar was voted 1995 Champion Older Male and the most prestigious honor of all, the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.
In 1996, Cigar continued his winning ways, including traveling more than 6,000 miles (10000 km) to earn a victory in the inaugural Dubai World Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with a purse of $5 million. During the season, Cigar matched the accomplishment of the great Triple Crown champion Citation, a record that had stood for almost 50 years, by winning his 16th race in a row in the Arlington Citation Challenge. Cigar failed in his bid to break the record when he lost to Dare and Go in the Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar Racetrack.
The 1996 Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park would be Cigar's last victory as a racehorse. Despite losing his last two races, the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont and the Breeders' Cup Classic at Woodbine Racetrack, tying Citation's race record was enough to earn him his second straight Champion Older Male and Horse of the Year honors.
Cigar was retired to stud at the end of the 1996 racing season as the richest thoroughbred in history, with earnings of $9,999,815. Ceremonies were held at Madison Square Garden to honor the horse that captured the imagination of racing fans more than any horse since the incomparable Secretariat. Further accolades came when he was named the Racehorse of the Decade of the 1990s, and in 2002 he was inducted in his first year of eligibility into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Cigar was ranked #18.
On February 2, 1997, a life-size bronze statue of Cigar was unveiled at Florida's Gulfstream Park on "A Salute to Cigar Day."
Also in 1997, the New York Racing Association renamed the Grade I NYRA Mile, run in November at Aqueduct, as the Cigar Mile. The NYRA Mile was the second race in Cigar's win streak.
Unfortunately proving infertile as a sire, today Cigar lives at the Kentucky Horse Park's Hall of Champions in Lexington.
[edit] References
- Hovdey, Jay. Cigar: America's Horse (1996) Blood-Horse Publications ISBN 0-939049-79-1
[edit] External links
Categories: 1990 racehorse births | Thoroughbred racehorses | Northern Dancer bloodline | Racehorses bred in Maryland | Racehorses trained in the United States | American racehorses | United States thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame inductees | Breeders' Cup Classic winners | Eclipse Award winners | American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year | Famous horses | Animal monuments
