Cigar
Two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, a popular member of the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions in Lexington, Ky., died on 7 October 2014 due to complications from surgery. He was 24 years old.
The son of Palace Music had resided at the Kentucky Horse Park since May 1999 after it was determined he was sterile. Cigar retired to Ashford Stud in 1997 after a $25-million deal had been struck with owner Allen Paulson following a spectacular racing career that included 16 consecutive wins and earnings of $9,999,815. He failed to impregnate a single mare at Ashford despite the efforts of fertility experts from around the world. His failure at stud triggered one of the largest fertility insurance settlements in history.
Conceived at Paulson’s Brookside Farm in Versailles, Ky., Cigar was foaled at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in Maryland. Palace Music, a grandson of Northern Dancer, was a turf specialist as a racehorse. Cigar was produced from the Seattle Slew mare Solar Slew, a $510,000 2-year-old purchase by Paulson who failed to win a race in seven starts.
Cigar did not race until February of his 3-year-old campaign in 1993, finishing seventh in a six-furlong maiden race at Santa Anita Park under the care of trainer Alex Hassinger. He didn’t win until his second start a few months later, then spent the rest of the year racing on turf in California, with mixed results.
Late in the season, veterinarians detected chips in both of Cigar’s knees and removed them surgically. When Cigar was ready to return to the track, Paulson transferred him to Bill Mott’s stable on the East Coast. After four losses on turf for Mott, the eventual Hall of Fame conditioner switched Cigar to dirt, winning a 28 October allowance race by eight lengths under Mike Smith. Mott then jumped Cigar into stakes company, where he won the Grade 1 NYRA Mile (since renamed the Cigar Mile) by seven lengths in November 1994.
Cigar wins the inaugural Dubai World Cup by half a length (photo: Phil Cole)
Cigar wouldn’t lose again until August 1996, when Dare and Go pulled off a stunning upset in the Gr1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar. In between were victories in the Donn Handicap, Gulfstream Park Handicap, Oaklawn Handicap, Pimlico Special, Massachusetts Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, Woodward Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Breeders’ Cup Classic (all in 1995), then a second win in the Donn, the inaugural Dubai World Cup, a second MassCap, and the Arlington Citation Challenge at Arlington Park (all in 1996). That final victory equaled the 16 consecutive victories of the great Calumet Farm runner Citation.
Cigar retired on a Timeform rating of 138, a total of 19 wins from 33 starts and career earnings of $9,999,815, making him America’s top money earner. His record stood until 2008, when it was surpassed by Curlin.
Cigar’s retirement in November 1996 included a parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City and a special appearance on the floor of Madison Square Garden during the National Horse Show.
Paulson sold 75% of Cigar to Coolmore Stud and Michael Tabor at a sum valuing him at around $25 million. He stood at Ashford Stud, the American division of Coolmore, and commenced his breeding career in February 1997. An insurance policy on Cigar required that he cover 20 mares twice and get at least 60 percent of them in foal to be considered fertile. Unfortunately he proved infertile and was the subject of one of the biggest insurance payouts in bloodstock history.
Cigar transferred to the Kentucky Horse Park in 1999 and has lived there ever since.
Jerry Bailey, who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1995, rode Cigar in every race following that first allowance win on dirt, since Mike Smith, at the time, was the regular rider of another future Hall of Fame horse, Holy Bull.
Cigar in retirement at Kentucky Horse Park (photo: Sarah Andrew)
Mott was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998, and Cigar was inducted in 2002, his first year of eligibility. In a poll of horse racing experts conducted by Blood-Horse magazine in 1999, Cigar was voted the 18th greatest North American horse of the 20th Century.
Cigar carried the late Paulson to Eclipse Awards as leading owner in 1995 and ’96 and Cigar himself won the 1995 and ’96 Horse of the Year titles in addition to Eclipse Awards as champion older male in 1995 and ’96. He is considered the Horse of the Decade for the 1990’s and has been immortalised on a stamp as well as with a life-sized bronze statue at the entrance to Gulfstream Park racetrack in Miami.
(source: Paulick Report)
The Bloodhorse posted this video of a visit to Cigar at Kentucky Horse Park dated August 2010.
