Cigar Runs For Spot In History Horse Picks Up Where Holy Bull Left Off; Belmont The Next Stop

In a sport hoping and sometimes groping for a living legend, Cigar suddenly and unexpectedly is carrying the torch.

“I think he has done more than you’d ever think of most horses doing,” said Bill Mott, who trains the 5-year-old winner of 11 straight races for owner and breeder Allen Paulson.

True. But Mott is looking back only 12 months, and in that span Cigar hasn’t accomplished as much as the four great horses of the 1970s - Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed and Spectacular Bid.

To be spoken of in the same breath, it seems Cigar must win America’s richest race, Saturday’s $3 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park, then cross the ocean to capture the inaugural running of the world’s richest race, the $4 million Dubai World Cup, in the United Arab Emirates on March 27.

Cigar faces major impediments in the quest for greatness.

He never ran in the Triple Crown races, which remain the best measurement of thoroughbred greatness in America. The most weight he has carried is 126 pounds - in his last three races. His peer group comes from an American gene pool significantly depleted because of multimillion-dollar yearling acquisitions by Arab buyers (for European racing) at auctions in the 1980s.

Cigar’s remarkable portfolio of accomplishments on the dirt is offset by a respectable but unspectacular grass-racing record. His latest loss was a third-place finish in an allowance race on the grass at Belmont last Oct. 7. That was his 11th and final turf appearance. The grass record for the son of former European standout Palace Music and the winless but well-bred American mare Solar Slew shows one win, two places and four thirds.

While most believe that the switch from grass to dirt is what set Cigar on fire, some think that a serious bleeding ulcer problem may have been what kept him from realizing his potential on grass.

Mott was reluctant to talk when the subject of the stomach problem, which was never disclosed by either he or Paulson, was broached. “He had a stomach ulcer,” Mott confirmed. “We didn’t even run him until we had that under control.

How long was the ulcer treated?

“We still monitor him closely,” was all Mott would say.

Whatever the reason, Cigar suddenly became a different horse. However, even if the grass races were purged from his record, he’d still have lots of ground to make up before he caught up to ‘70s Big Four.

Secretariat won the 1973 Triple Crown, climaxing the feat in the Belmont by running perhaps the greatest race in history. He concluded his career by moving to the turf and taking two of that era’s most prestigious grass races - the 1-1/2-mile Man ‘o War and the 1-5/8-mile Canadian International.

Seattle Slew in 1976 became the first unbeaten Triple Crown winner. Cigar’s maternal grandfather ended his career the following year by winning the Stuyvesant Handicap while carrying 134 pounds. In his three years of racing, he started 17 times, went to the winner’s circle 14 times and placed twice.

Affirmed became the next and last Triple Crown winner in 1978, battling Alydar every step of the way in the greatest rivalry in racing history.

Spectacular Bid was denied the Triple Crown when he lost in the 1979 Belmont. Nevertheless, his was a herculean career - 26 wins, two places and one show in 30 starts at 16 tracks from coast to coast. He won all nine of his races as a 4-year-old, and in each of the last five he lugged more than 130 pounds.

“Spectacular Bid was in another league, and I think Holy Bull was, too,” said Phil Johnson, one of the New York circuit’s top trainers.”If Holy Bull was right and they raced, Holy Bull would win. He’d go right on by, and Cigar would never catch him.”

At this time last year Holy Bull was being touted as the heir apparent to the great horses of the ‘70s - even though he’d been a flop in the Kentucky Derby and hadn’t run in the Breeders’ Cup.

Early this year Holy Bull lived up to expectations, eliciting an outpouring of “superhorse” hype.

But in the Feb. 11 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream in Florida, Holy Bull made headlines by breaking down on the backstretch.

Overshadowed by Holy Bull’s career-ending injury was a 5-1/2-length win by Cigar, his fourth straight win.”Instead, it seems like Holy Bull handed him the baton going down the backstretch.”

Indeed, Cigar has delivered all that had been expected from Holy Bull and more.