Cigar: Puffed Up or Deserving? : Some Still Question Whether Horse of Year Belongs With Legends of the Track

Statistically, Cigar’s place in the racing galaxy is clear.

The 6-year-old horse, who will be named 1995’s horse of the year at a black-tie dinner tonight at a hotel near San Diego, has earned $5 million, which ranks him fourth behind three retired horses--Alysheba, who earned $6.6 million; John Henry, $6.5 million, and Best Pal, $5.6 million.

Going into Saturday’s $300,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., Cigar is on a 12-race winning streak. Another victory and he ties Personal Ensign, the filly who went undefeated in a 13-race career in the 1980s. Cigar is also in position to move past the four other horses ahead of him in consecutive victories--Citation, Buckpasser, Colin and Man o’ War. Citation holds the record, 16 in a row. His streak finally ended in the La Sorpresa Handicap at Santa Anita 46 years ago when Miche, carrying 114 pounds, beat him by a neck. Citation ran with 130 pounds on his back that day.

These frames of reference for Cigar are in the pages of the sport’s record books. But beyond the mere numbers of Cigar’s accomplishments, racing buffs lack a consensus when comparing trainer Bill Mott’s horse with the legends of the track.

One respected former trainer says that Cigar is better than Secretariat. A veteran turf writer says that Cigar ranks among the best 10 horses to race in the last 40 years. But several experts, including Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro, have reservations. They say that Cigar still has more to prove, such as the ability to win while carrying more weight.

For the Donn, Cigar has been assigned 128 pounds, two more than he has ever carried. Citation, Man o’ War, Kelso, Forego and Dr. Fager frequently carried 130-pound imposts and more. When Citation’s winning streak ended in January 1950, he had been assigned 130 pounds in only his second race back after taking a year off because of ankle surgery.

Perhaps it is not cricket to penalize a horse for not having done what he’s never been asked to do. Track racing secretaries, fearful that the Big Horse won’t run, don’t weight horses the way they used to. Even John Henry, who was still running in 1984, carried 130 pounds only twice in an 83-race career.

Arthur B. Hancock III questions Cigar’s enrollment in the racing pantheon for a different reason. Hancock, the owner of Stone Farm in Paris, Ky., bred and raced Gato Del Sol, winner of the 1982 Kentucky Derby, and he also was one of the owners of Sunday Silence, who won the Derby and was voted horse of the year in 1989.

“When Sunday Silence was running, Easy Goer was around,” Hancock said. “Easy Goer was a very nice horse, but we were able to beat him most of the time. I wonder now if there are any Easy Goers out there challenging Cigar. I think that to be a great horse, a horse has to meet all the criteria, and I don’t think Cigar’s done that yet. Cigar looks mighty good, and he deserves a lot of credit for all he’s done, but I wonder what he would do if Sunday Silence was still around to try him.”

Cigar, who won all 10 of his races last year, so dominated the male older-horse division in the Eclipse Awards balloting that he received all 306 votes cast by the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers Assn. and the racing secretaries from the tracks that belong to the Thoroughbred Racing Assns. He is also likely to have gotten all of the horse-of-the-year votes, a feat accomplished only once--by John Henry in 1981--since the Eclipse voting started in 1971. Cigar’s closest rival last year was Unaccounted For, who lost by one length in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. Cigar won all the rest of his races by two lengths or more.

“Any horse that’s won as many as this horse has to be considered among the top horses of all time,” said John Nerud, who trained Dr. Fager.

In 1968, the year he was voted horse of the year, Dr. Fager carried 134 pounds while running a mile at Arlington Park in 1:32 1/5, still the record.

“When a horse wins as many races in a row as Cigar has, he’s bound have to run some races on days when he wasn’t feeling good,” Nerud said. “He hasn’t been asked to carry a lot of weight, but he’s the best since Spectacular Bid [horse of the year in 1980] and Seattle Slew [Triple Crown champion and horse of the year in 1977]. Cigar’s better than Secretariat [twice horse of the year and Triple Crown champion in 1973]. But then, I never gave Secretariat that much credit. The knock on him is that he couldn’t win on any kind of a track. Secretariat got beat by bums four times. Allen Jerkens, who beat Secretariat with Onion and Prove Out, used to say, ‘I get him on a hard track and I’ve got a chance. He’s not the same horse when you can hear his feet rattle.’ ”

The best horse Charlie Whittingham ever saw was Phar Lap, and that includes Sunday Silence, who earned $4.9 million when Whittingham trained him in 1988-90. As a teenager, Whittingham watched the Australian champion win a $100,000 race at Caliente. Sixteen days later, Phar Lap died, probably of colic, Whittingham said.

“All the training that horse took, he had to be tough,” Whittingham said. “They never stopped riding him. But Phar Lap never had much to run at, and neither has Cigar. The handicap horses last year weren’t much. It’s tough comparing one year to another, but I’d have to say that Cigar is one of the great ones. He hasn’t carried weight, but all he does is win. He’s one of the few SOBs to win 12 in a row, I know that.”

Eddie Arcaro, who will be 80 on Feb. 19, won the Kentucky Derby five times and the Preakness and Belmont Stakes six times apiece. He says that Citation and Kelso were the best horses he ever rode. In the early 1960s, when Kelso won five successive horse-of-the-year titles, the big gelding won 12 races carrying between 130 and 136 pounds.

“I think Cigar still has to prove some things to the public,” Arcaro said. “He’s good, but how good? The only thing that can keep him from being called great is winning with weight. But he’s awful good. Jerry Bailey’s one of the smartest jockeys around. Cigar’s won a lot of his races easy, and Bailey’s hardly ever put any steam under him. He hasn’t needed to.”

Another Hall of Fame jockey, Bill Shoemaker, isn’t bothered by the weight factor.

“Cigar’s got to be great to do what he’s done,” said Shoemaker, now a trainer. “He’s taken on all comers, so how can you knock him? He’s run on all kinds of different tracks, and he’s run in the mud, and he’s beat everybody. I’ve got him right up near the top.”

Joe Hirsch, executive columnist for the Daily Racing Form, has seen all the best horses since 1952.

“For the years I’ve been around, Secretariat and Kelso would be close,” Hirsch said. “Native Dancer is next. But for the incident on the first turn at the [1953] Derby, he would have retired undefeated and might have gone down as the best to ever race. But after those three, Cigar fits in somewhere with the next group.”

Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe retired as racing secretary at Santa Anita in 1990, after a 40-year career there. During that time, five horses, among them Round Table, Ack Ack and Spectacular Bid, won the Santa Anita Handicap carrying 130 pounds.

“Cigar is certainly much the best right now,” Kilroe said. “It’s hard to take a horse at one place at time and match him up with a horse from another time. Cigar’s a lovely horse, and he’s awfully good at what he’s doing. But I’d like to see him carry 130 pounds a time or two, just to see what he could do.”

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On a Roll

A look at the winning streak that has Cigar poised to be named horse of the year tonight:

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Winning Date Track Race Wt. Margin* Oct. 28** Aqueduct Allowance 117 8 Nov. 26** Aqueduct NYRA Mile 111 7 Jan. 22 Gulfstream Allowance 122 2 Feb. 11 Gulfstream Donn Handicap 115 5 1/2 March 5 Gulfstream Gulfstream Handicap 118 7 1/2 April 15 Oaklawn Oaklawn Handicap 120 2 1/2 May 13 Pimlico Pimlico Special 122 2 1/4 June 3 Suffolk Mass. Handicap 124 4 July 2 Hollywood Hollywood Gold Cup 126 3 1/2 Sept. 16 Belmont Woodward 126 2 3/4 Oct. 7 Belmont Jockey Club Gold Cup 126 1 Oct. 28 Belmont Breeders’ Cup Classic 126 2 1/2

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Source: Daily Racing Form; * in lengths; ** 1994; others in 1995

OTHER STREAKS

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Horse Years Races Citation 1948, 1950 16 Buckpasser 1966-67 15 Colin*** 1907-08 15 Man o’ War 1919-20 14 Personal Ensign*** 1986-88 13 Spectacular Bid 1978-79 12

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Source: The Maryland Horse; ***Retired undefeated.