Cigar’s Trainer Confident

“If Cigar runs his race,” said Bill Mott, who trains the 6-year-old star for Allen Paulson of California, “they can’t beat him.”

Mott, reunited with Cigar at Belmont Park after attending the Keeneland Sales in Kentucky, predicted that neither rain nor rivals would deter Cigar from winning today’s $500,000 Woodward Stakes for the second straight year and starting a new winning streak one month after his old one was clipped at 16 races.

“I can see Smart Strike is on a roll, winning six straight races,” Mott said, “and Eltish is coming in here in good order. Everyone in there is running well. But until they can prove they can beat him, they’ve got to beat him and do it on the race track. If I had to relate it back to how he came into the Woodward a year ago, he’s every bit as good as he was, or better.”