Retirement Plans Smolder For Cigar Trainer Admits Era’s Top Thoroughbred Champion May Have Lost The Edge That Made Him Invincible

On the day after he ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic to the 19-1 longshot Alphabet Soup, the champion Cigar rested before returning to New York while his trainer admitted that time and toil had finally robbed the mighty bay horse of his invincibility.

“He never gave up,” said Bill Mott, who trained Cigar through 17 victories in his last 20 races. “He was still grinding. But maybe he lost that electricity that he had before. He had an electric sort of move. He used to finish races in four strides. Now, he doesn’t.”

Cigar was expected to leave Woodbine Racetrack on Monday morning and return to Belmont Park, then make a guest appearance Saturday at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden. Mott said he would “keep him in training a little” until it’s time for Cigar to go home to Brookside Farm in Kentucky.

But Allen Paulson, his owner, has kept open the possibility of one more race for Cigar, although he seemed to relent after the Classic when he said: “It’s been a great run. But the horse can’t go on forever.”

In a lighter moment, Mott was informed that Cigar had earned $480,000 for running third in the $4 million Classic but was still $185 short of the $10 million career mark. The trainer smiled and quipped, “Please don’t tell Mr. Paulson.”

The Breeders’ Cup produced one late scratch, the filly star Yanks Music, who came down with some swelling in the left front ankle before she could challenge Cigar and 12 other male horses in the Classic. And it produced one injury when the California 5-year-old Dare and Go, who ended Cigar’s 16-race winning streak in August, came out of the Classic with a chipped knee after running 11th.

“Dare and Go is off on his right front,” said Richard Mandella, his trainer. “I would suspect he maybe chipped the knee. But he was going to stud anyway. We were hoping to go to Japan if he ran well, and try the Japan Cup. That is going to have to be called off.”

The 83 horses who ran in the 13th Breeders’ Cup here Saturday, the first staged outside the United States, began to leave Woodbine on Sunday after captivating the Canadian public with seven stirring races run in mild weather with purses of $11 million.

The 14 from abroad included 13 from Europe and the first ever from Japan, but the only winner was Ireland’s colt Pilsudski, who has had a pretty good October: second in the Arc de Triomphe three weeks ago, first in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf.

The most successful trainer was Nick Zito. This time, he hit a home run: one first (Storm Song in the Juvenile Fillies) and three seconds (Love That Jazz in the Juvenile Fillies, Acceptable in the Juvenile and Louis Quatorze in the Classic).

His relentless rival D. Wayne Lukas saddled 10 horses in the seven races and won with Boston Harbor in the Juvenile, took second with Serena’s Song in the Distaff and ran third and fourth in the Sprint with Honour and Glory and Lord Carson. In 13 Breeders’ Cups so far, Lukas leads all trainers with 13 victories, 16 seconds and 11 thirds and earnings of more than $12 million.

Appeals deadline nears

No appeals have been filed yet by the owners of the six horses loaded into the wrong starting-gate stalls for the Sprint.

Any protest could still be lodged with the Ontario Racing Commission within 48 hours.