Cigar Lives Up To Puffery

Case closed. Cigar goes down as one of the alltime greats. He was smokin’.

Horse of the Year might have been the least of his accomplishments in winning his 12th straight race Saturday, capturing the Breeders’ Cup Classic and completing the first undefeated year by a major male racehorse in 15 years.

“I never rode with Secretariat, but this is the greatest horse I’ve ever seen,” said jockey Jerry Bailey, who’s won three straight Breeders’ Cup Classics and four of the last five.

His 2-1/2-length margin of victory was a half-length more than any other horse in a Classic race, and his time of 1:592-5 for 1-1/4 miles was a second faster than any other horse had ever run.

And, like under the pressure of the great Secretariat in the 1973 Kentucky Derby, the magic 2-minute barrier was broken.

“This really etched it in stone. What a champ he really is,” trainer Bill Mott said. “This leaves no doubt. You can tack his name up there as one of the all-time greats.

“It was a good way to end the season.”

Ten of Cigar’s 12 victories came this season, giving him the first undefeated season in major competition since Personal Ensign finished a 12-for-12 career by winning the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. The last colt to go undefeated in a season was Spectacular Bid, who was 8-for-8 in 1980.

It was a record-setting day in many ways at Belmont Park, where four Breeders’ Cup records for speed fell - in the Classic, the Distaff and both 2-year-old races, despite a wet, windblown track that held attendance to a Breeders’ Cup record low of 37,246.

While Bailey, Mott and owner Allen E. Paulson shared the biggest part of the limelight, it also turned out to be a bright day for trainer Shug McGaughey and jockey Mike Smith, each of whom had two wins.

For trainer D. Wayne Lukas, it wasn’t so bright. For the fifth time in six years, Lukas went home without a win, although he won $716,000 in purse money. From seven starters - three apiece in the 2-year-old races and Serena’s Song in the Distaff - he wound up with two seconds and two thirds.

McGaughey won two of the races Lukas hoped to win, the Juvenile Fillies and the Distaff, and Unbridled’s Song carried on in his daddy’s Breeders’ Cup footsteps here by winning the Juvenile. His sire, Unbridled, won the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont in 1990.

Cigar, whose winning streak began one year ago to the day, had to overcome the No. 10 post position in a field of 11. He had to overcome a wet track, which seemed to bother him slightly in the Jockey Club Gold Cup here Oct. 7. And, he had to wait in the paddock while stewards checked his shoes.

But he won despite it, beating L’Carrier by 2-1/2 lengths, with Unaccounted For, the last horse to beat Cigar, another three-quarters of a length back in third.

And, if that’s not enough, the move he made to win the race was a monster. He went into the final turn in fourth behind L’Carriere, Star Standard and Unaccounted For. Bailey swung him wide, urged him forward, and by the time the field straightened for home, the race was over.

Inside Information, ridden by Smith, turned the Distaff into the biggest rout in Breeders’ Cup history and gave McGaughey a runaway start as he won two of the first three races. McGaughey also won the Juvenile Fillies with My Flag, ridden by Bailey.

The 13-1/2-length victory by Inside Information over stablemate Heavenly Prize was the biggest in Breeders’ Cup history.

In the $1 million Juvenile Fillies, My Flag surprised a pair of Lukas fillies, including favored Golden Attraction, and won by a half-length in the mud in a Cup record 1:42 2-5.

The $1 million Juvenile also was run in record time. Unbridled’s Song, ridden by Smith, covered 1-1/16 miles in 1:41 3-5 in the mud.