|
|
Post by Evelyn on Oct 8, 2014 22:25:16 GMT -5
RIP Cigar. Thank you for being a true, real Champion. Stories about Cigar  A King In The Sport Two-time Horse of the Year Cigar has passed away at the age of 24. The Hall of Fame runner died from complications following neck surgery. |
|
|
|
Post by Evelyn on Oct 8, 2014 22:29:17 GMT -5
Cigar, what greatness is all about By Bill Finley ESPN The very best thing about horse racing is the horses. They are the stars. They, and they alone, are the ones who infatuate us, get the heart pounding and create emotional attachments. Cigar did all that, and a lot more. We hadn't seen him on the racetrack in almost 18 years, but he lived on at the Kentucky Horse Park. Just down the road from there, at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Cigar died Tuesday from complications after surgery for severe osteoarthritis in his neck. He wasn't the fastest of his era and may not have been the most talented, and there are some who still argue that he took advantage of a weak group of competitors. But what made Cigar so special is that for a stretch of some 20 months, he always delivered. He was Cal Ripken-esque. He always showed up and always gave you his very best. His winning streak would reach 16, yet it began quietly. It was an ordinary allowance race in late October at Aqueduct, and Cigar came into the race a mediocrity, a horse that had been racing on the turf with only modest success. Trainer Bill Mott knew it was time to try something different, so he put him on the dirt and the response was immediate. Not even favored (he was 7-2), he won by eight lengths. Next up, the proof that he was better than just another good horse. He won what was then the NYRA Mile over a tough handicap horse, Devil His Due. Then, an allowance win. The 1995 Donn Handicap followed, and it was the greatest race that never was. No one quite knew it at the time, but a showdown between Holy Bull and Cigar likely would have been one of the greatest races of our lifetimes. It didn't happen because Holy Bull pulled up with an injury. If you want to believe in such things, he passed the baton to Cigar that day, to let him know that it was now Cigar's turn to be the sport's biggest star. The wins kept coming. No. 7 in the streak was at Suffolk Downs in the 1995 MassCap. At a small track not used to seeing top horses, Cigar was given the rock star treatment. Come the 1995 Breeders' Cup, at his home track of Belmont Park, it was clear that he was by far the best horse in the sport and the type that comes around once every many years. He did not disappoint. With announcer Tom Durkin calling out, "And here he is, the incomparable, incredible, unbeatable Cigar," he won with the type of professionalism that was his calling card. He would take on the world and triumph in the first Dubai World Cup, make a triumphant return to Suffolk Downs (which arranged for state troopers to give him a police escort to the track), and tie what was then the modern record for most consecutive victories when winning the newly created Citation Challenge at Arlington Park. It came to an end in the 1996 Pacific Classic at del Mar where he was beaten by a horse named Dare And Go. Cigar wasn't the same horse the rest of the way, and his career ut none of that mattered. What mattered was the streak and what it represented. I was there in person for 14 of the 16 wins, missing only the Jan. 22, 1995 allowance win at Gulfstream and the 1995 Oaklawn Handicap. Once this thing got rolling, it was unlike anything racing had ever experienced. His races were more than an event. They were a phenomenon. As he entered the gate, electricity would storm through the racetrack, and his crossing the wire would be greeted with a thunderclap of adulation. He had fertility issues so we were never given the treat of seeing his offspring race. He spent the last 15 years of his life as a living monument to greatness at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was so special that his passing elicited a comment from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. "The great champion Cigar thrilled racing fans and surely brought new ones to the sport as he compiled win after win in his incredible streak of victories," said Beshear said in a statement. "An example of racing at its best, he continued to serve as an ambassador, bringing joy to countless visitors to the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park, where he will be missed." here will never be anything like this again, not with how much horse racing has changed since Cigar's career and how it struggles for the national spotlight. But that's a topic for another day. This is a time for remembrance, for appreciation. Cigar was simply wonderful  Horsephotos.com Trainer Bill Mott with his great racehorse Cigar. |
|
|
|
Post by Evelyn on Oct 8, 2014 22:34:08 GMT -5
Bailey on Cigar: He made me fall in love with horses
By Jennie Rees
Louisville Courier Journal
Retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, now a racing commentator for NBC, rode 1995-'96 Horse of the Year Cigar for his last 19 starts, including all but the first of his record-tying 16 straight victorious that included 11 Grade I triumphs. Bailey reflected on Cigar in a phone interview with The Courier-Journal's Jennie Rees and Herald-Leader's Alicia Hughes. Here's the transcript:
What was the difference-make with him?
"I guess because he was so cool. I mean, he was a very, very charismatic horse. Everybody knows how fast he was, how dominating he was, the length of time he dominated. Look, when I got into this game I wanted to be a football player. I couldn't; I was too small. Being a jockey was a means to an end for me. And for the first half of my career, until Cigar, I had like a doctor-patient relationship. I rode the horses. I worked them out in the morning, and I went home. There was nothing else – until Cigar. He made me fall in love with horses."
What allowed him to be so successful in a cross country and trans-Atlantic campaign spanning two seasons?
"There might be more than one reason, but I'll start out with two words: Bill Mott. Obviously this is not to diminish Cigar's talent, because he was the most talented horse I ever saw or was around, or at least on myself. But Billy did a phenomenal job keeping him at that peak for so long. A lot of guys could have ridden him – you could have been on him for a couple of races. But Billy did an unbelievable job of keeping this horse at a very, very high level for such a long time."
RELATED: Champion racehorse Cigar dead at 24
History suggests some horses are never the same after traveling to Dubai. Did the 1996 Dubai World Cup take a little starch out of him the rest of that year?
"That was probably a component. But people don't realize how many times this horse was paraded out for photo sessions, or taken out of the stall for an extra 10, 15 minutes. How accommodating the Paulsons (owners Allen and Madeleine), the Motts, all Billy's staff was, people coming up to his stall looking, taking him out. It was all those things. And all the trips across country. It was all of that.
"And people didn't run again him unless they were totally ready. It was much like the defending champ of the Super Bowl. When horses lined up against him, they were ready and they were giving him all they had. So every race he ran in needed a top effort. I think all of that stuff accumulated."
Did you feel pressure, or was he such a talent that he took that weight off, that he would take care of business?
"I'm the ultimate worrier…. But I never worried about him because he had such quickness from the gate. He had such a high cruising speed, I could get out of any situation that I might find myself. He was never in trouble, because he allowed me to use him to the degree that I was always outside in a perfect stalking position. It's hard to be worried when you're on a horse like that, because he gets you out of any trouble you might find."
What about his last race, the Breeders' Cup Classic, when he was third by a total of a head?
"Let's start with the Citation race in Chicago. He wasn't himself, and he won anyway. Dramatic Gold, I think (Corey) Nakatani carried him wide on both turns, and he still won. The Pacific Classic, that's on me. I got to the point where I thought there was nothing this horse could not do, to the extent that I asked him to do something in the Pacific Classic that no horse could do. Go ¾ in 1:09 and a mile in 1:33 and keep going. That was impossible. But that's how good he was, he had me thinking he could do anything.
"Then of course he came back and was dominating in the Woodward. Then he met skip away in the Gold Cup. Skip Away was a very, very good horse. I think at the time people didn't realize that.
"And then in the last race of his career, I could never help him. He was four-wide all the way. The only chance I had to save ground was into the first turn I would had to have followed a 40-1 shot. I just didn't think it was the thing to do, and I could never find another spot to save any ground. If you had Trakus then, he'd have traveled much farther than any horse, and he still gets beat a head. Listen, if that was a year earlier, he'd have won anyway. But toward the end, he wasn't as dominant. But if I could have helped him a couple of times, he still would have won."
When was the last time you saw Cigar?
"I saw him Sunday. I was in Lexington for the NBC broadcast and I was able to spend 15-20 minutes with him. He looked good. He wasn't moving very well but he was carrying his flesh good. I had some carrots in my hand and he had that white eye that just looks right through you."
How important was it to Allen Paulson to showcase horse across country, perhaps even at times when Bill would have preferred to stay home?
"Mr. Paulson's philosophy was if the reward was great enough, let's take the risk – i.e., the World Cup. Then there were those occasions like the Hollywood Gold Cup. I do believe that Billy might have preferred to stay home, but Mr. Paulson wanted to go, and certainly that was the right move. He was as dominant in that race on that day as ever."
Were you skeptical about going to Dubai?
"I had no idea what to expect going in, I don't know if anybody did. I'd never been there before. Like I said I was a worrier, I worried about everything. Then he didn't come up to the race exactly right. He came up with a hoof problem; Billy missed a race he wanted to run in in preparation for it. I do remember he worked him in company. It's the only time I remember him working in company to get him ready. He wasn't a big work horse, he'd work like three-quarter in 1:16. And he worked seven-eighths in like 1:23 with another horse, a good horse. But even then, none of us were sure exactly it would affect a horse traveling that far. And under the lights over there. Yeah, I was worried.
"Even looking at this race on a replay, the World Cup, if you watch the stretch it looks like Soul of the Matter is going to run right by him. Even watching the rerun, I think Soul of the Matter is going to run right by him. But I was never concerned at that moment, because I could feel Cigar starting to get his motor revved up again. I could feel Soul of the Matter bearing down on me, and he might even have gotten a nose in front, I'm not sure.
"But I could also look at the wire and tell how much distance we had to travel, and I could feel Cigar moving again. But he kind of waited on horses. And I was never worried that he wasn't going to accelerate and draw back off again. And that's who he was, what he did. He was farther in front, even though it was like a neck, at the wire, then he was a sixteenth out."
As the interview ended, Bailey wanted to make one statement, clearly choked up as he said, "I'm blessed that I was the one picked to ride him. I don't know why, but I'm glad I was."
|
|
|
|
Post by Evelyn on Oct 8, 2014 22:38:57 GMT -5
Hall of Fame
A winning streak with few precedents was the centerpiece of Cigar’s career. From late 1994 through mid-1996, he won 16 consecutive races and matched Triple Crown winner Citation’s streak of the late 1940s. But Cigar’s career began slowly. Plagued with various growing pains, he did not race until age three. Trained by Alex Hassinger, Jr., Cigar began his career in California. He won a maiden race in his second start on a dirt course and was then switched to the turf, where he won an allowance race and placed second in the Volante Handicap. At age four, he joined the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and moved to New York.
Trainer Bill Mott switched Cigar from turf racing back to dirt, and Cigar’s career caught fire. From late in his four-year-old season onward, he won 17 of his remaining 20 starts. These included many of the best races from coast to coast: the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Jockey Club Gold Cup, two Massachusetts Handicaps, the Hollywood Gold Cup, two Donn Handicaps, a Pimlico Special, Oaklawn Handicap, and the specially-carded Citation Challenge. In 1995, Cigar earned a perfect record of 10 wins in 10 starts, matching Tom Fool’s unbeaten campaign as a champion 4-year-old in 1953. Not surprisingly, Cigar was voted Horse of the Year and champion older male.
In March 1996, Cigar jetted to the Middle East and won the inaugural Dubai World Cup. He then added the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs and the Citation Challenge at Arlington Park, both with 130 pounds up. Dare and Go finally ended Cigar’s winning streak in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Returning East, Cigar captured the Woodward Stakes but ran a disappointing third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine. It was time for the world’s most famous horse to retire. Race fans celebrated Cigar’s career with a party at Madison Square Garden. Several weeks later he was again honored as Horse of the Year and champion older male. After his stellar racing career, hopes were high that Cigar’s time at stud would be equally impressive. Despite the efforts of leading fertility specialists, Cigar was infertile. He was sent to the Kentucky Horse Park where he resides in the Hall of Champions near fellow Hall of Famer John Henry.
Cigar was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.
Cigar
Induction Year:
2002
Foaled:
1990
Lineage:
By Palace Music-Solar Slew, by Seattle Slew
Breeder:
Allen E. Paulson
Owner:
Allen E. and Madeleine Paulson
Trainer:
Bill Mott (1994-1996); Alex Hassinger, Jr. (1993)
Sire:
Palace Music
Dam:
Solar Slew
First:
19
Second:
4
Third:
5
Earnings:
$9,999,015.00
|
|
