Cigar Goes for Special Citation Streak Today

Citation’s record 16-race winning streak started in April 1948, after he had begun his career with 12 wins and two seconds in 14 races. Barely 3 years old at the start of the streak--he had been foaled in Kentucky on April 11, 1945--Citation was a horse who was not expected to lose, and unusual was the race that would draw more than a few opponents.

Cigar’s 15-race winning streak started in late October 1994, after an undistinguished career, mostly on grass, that produced only two victories in 13 starts. He was nearing the end of his 4-year-old season, a horse with the deserved reputation of not knowing how to win. He was now running on dirt because his efforts on turf, the surface that his breeding favored, had been futile.

Only three horses showed up to challenge Citation on April 17, 1948, and after that win at the now-defunct Havre de Grace track in Maryland, the star of Calumet Farm didn’t lose until January 1950 at Santa Anita, with all of 1949 off because of an injury.

Cigar was an unexpected winner at Aqueduct on Oct. 28, 1994. Only one of the Daily Racing Form’s handicappers picked him on top in a $34,000 allowance race, and that was primarily because trainer Bill Mott’s barn had been hot in the opening weeks of the Aqueduct meet.

Cigar hasn’t lost since, and today, at Arlington International in the Chicago suburbs, his gold-plated path is expected to cross Citation’s, whose record hasn’t been challenged since Buckpasser’s 15-race streak ended in 1967. (Mister Frisky won 16 straight in 1989-90, but racing’s unofficial record keepers don’t recognize that feat because all but three of the wins were over third-rate horses in Puerto Rico).

Going into today’s $1.05-million Arlington Citation Challenge Stakes, here is a race-by-race look at the winning streaks of Citation and Cigar:

CITATION

No. 1--April 17, 1948, at Havre de Grace, Chesapeake Stakes, 1 1/16 miles. Eddie Arcaro, who had ridden Citation for the first time five days before and finished a troubled second in the Chesapeake Trial, had no traffic problems this time and they won by 4 1/2 lengths. Saggy, the winner of the Trial, finished fourth and last, beaten by 15 lengths.

No. 2--April 27, 1948, Churchill Downs, Derby Trial, one mile. In another four-horse field, Arcaro never used his whip as Citation won by 1 1/4 lengths, paying $2.20--the minimum--with no place or show betting. Four days later, Citation would try to become the first horse since Black Gold in 1924 to win both the Derby Trial and the Kentucky Derby.

No. 3--May 1, 1948, Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby, 1 1/4 miles. As Arlington is doing today with Cigar, the Derby track didn’t allow place or show betting. On a sloppy track, there were only six starters--the smallest field since 1907--and Citation and Coaltown, both trained by Ben Jones and his son, Jimmy, were coupled in the betting.

“Are you sure I’m on the right one?” Arcaro said to Ben Jones as he got a leg up on Citation in the paddock.

Arcaro’s instructions were to avoid getting in a speed duel with Coaltown, and Citation had dropped six lengths back after half a mile.

“I all but fell out of the grandstand, because I thought Eddie had overreacted,” said the 89-year-old Jimmy Jones, who’s in from Parnell, Mo., to watch Cigar at Arlington today.

But then Arcaro hit Citation once with his whip.

“He made up all that ground in less than a sixteenth of a mile,” Jones said.

Paying $2.80, Citation and Coaltown ran 1-2, separated by 3 1/2 lengths at the wire.

No. 4--May 15, 1948, Pimlico, Preakness, 1 3/16 miles. Only three rivals showed up in Baltimore, and without his stablemate to beat, Citation won by 5 1/2 lengths on another off track.

“This was easier than the Derby,” Arcaro said. “I hit him a couple of times, because he’s inclined to loaf a little.”

No. 5--May 29, 1948, Garden State Park, Jersey Stakes, 1 1/4 miles. There were four weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont then, one more than now, so the Jones boys squeezed in this race.

“People questioned this,” Jimmy Jones recalled. “But the horse was going to need a workout, and this way he got paid for it. Besides, Gene Mori, who ran Garden State, was a friend of mine and wanted to show off the horse.”

In a four-horse field, Citation won by 11 lengths before 27,000. His time, 2:03, broke the track record.

No. 6--June 12, 1948, Belmont Park, Belmont Stakes, 1 1/2 miles. Answering the question about whether a son of Bull Lea could handle this distance, Citation beat seven foes, winning by eight lengths after stumbling at the start.

“All the rest of them looked like selling platers that day,” the 80-year-old Arcaro said recently.

The time of 2:28 1/5 matched Count Fleet’s stakes record, set five years earlier. Whirlaway, another Calumet horse trained by the Joneses, Count Fleet and Assault had already swept the Triple Crown in the 1940s, and now Citation had become the eighth horse to win the Derby, Preakness and Belmont. There wouldn’t be another Triple Crown champion until Secretariat in 1973.

No. 7--July 5, 1948, Arlington Park, Stars and Stripes Handicap, 1 1/8 miles. A record crowd of 46,490 saw Citation win by two lengths in 1:49 1/5, which equaled the track record set by Calumet’s Armed in the same race the previous year.

No. 8--Aug. 21, 1948, Washington Park, Buckingham Purse, six furlongs. Newbold Pierson subbed for Arcaro at the Chicago track and was a 2 1/2-length winner on Citation, who had missed the Arlington Classic three weeks before when a dump truck startled him at the barn and he pulled a muscle.

No. 9--Aug. 28, 1948, Washington Park, American Derby, 1 1/4 miles. With Arcaro aboard again, Citation beat his stablemate, Free America, by a length, his smallest winning margin during the streak. Earnings: $66,450.

No. 10--Sept. 29, 1948, Belmont, Sysonby Mile, one mile. Backing down in distance again, Citation was 1-10 with Coaltown in a field of six. Spy Song led going into the far turn, but in three or four strides, Citation moved by. Coaltown finished third.

No. 11--Oct. 2, 1948, Belmont, Jockey Club Gold Cup, two miles. Only three days after the Sysonby, Citation beat Phalanx by seven lengths.

“We used the Sysonby as a workout for this race,” Jimmy Jones said.

In seven weeks, Citation had won four times at distances from six furlongs to two miles.

“If any horse in his classic year performed feats to rival this, who is he?” racing historian Leon Rasmussen asked.

No. 12--Oct. 16, 1948, Belmont, Empire City International Gold Cup, 1 5/8 miles. A horse from Ireland and a Belgian champion were in the field, but Arcaro never used his whip as Citation won by two lengths, with Phalanx second again. Citation’s purse total went over $800,000, and Warren Wright, the baking-powder heir who ran Calumet, began to think about breaking Stymie’s record, which was $911,335.

No. 13--Oct. 29, 1948, Pimlico, Pimlico Special, 1 3/16 miles. “There was no money for second place, so nobody else ran,” is the way Jimmy Jones sums up this race. Citation completed the no-betting walkover in 1:59 4/5.

No. 14--Dec. 3, 1948, Tanforan, Challenge Purse, six furlongs--Once again capitalizing on their friendship, Gene Mori, who collected racetracks, got the Joneses to ship Citation to his track near San Francisco. With the winter goal the Santa Anita Handicap in late February, Citation caught a muddy track and won by 1 1/2 lengths.

No. 15--Dec. 11, 1948, Tanforan, Tanforan Handicap, 1 1/4 miles. The morning after Citation’s five-length win on an off track, Jimmy Jones looked at the swelling in the colt’s left front ankle and groaned.

“When you try to steal something, you have to pay,” Jones says now. “Running him on that track was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. The track had a drainage problem, and it was like a sidewalk underneath. There were also a lot of holes, and he must have stepped in one in the race.”

Jones subsequently disagreed with Wright about how the ankle growth should be treated, but to keep his job the trainer allowed a veterinarian from Kentucky to use a firing iron on the injury.

No. 16--Jan. 11, 1950, Santa Anita, Belmont Purse, six furlongs. After 13 months, Citation returned to the races on a rainy day before 13,000. Only three horses ran against him, and Steve Brooks was his new rider.

“We had used Steve off and on for 15 years, and the glamour was off the horse for Arcaro,” Jones said.

Citation won by 1 1/2 lengths, and news accounts, emphasizing his pursuit of Stymie, didn’t mention that he had broken the record of 15 in a row that had been set by Colin in 1907-08.

About two weeks later, on Jan. 26, the streak ended before 23,000 at Santa Anita. Carrying his highest impost, 130 pounds, Citation lost the six-furlong La Sorpresa Handicap--English translation: the surprise--by a neck to Miche, an Argentine-bred gray and future Santa Anita Handicap winner.

“Weight brings horses together,” Jones said after the race, in which Miche had carried only 114 pounds.

Citation ran 14 more times, winning only four.

Warren Wright, who had suffered a heart attack, died Dec. 28, 1950, and reportedly had left a deathbed wish that his horse go after Stymie’s money record.

Citation finished his career July 14, 1951, by winning the Hollywood Gold Cup, clearing the $1-million mark and breaking Stymie’s record. His totals were 32 wins in 45 starts and purses of $1,085,760.

“After the injury, he wasn’t Citation,” Jones said. “He was all broken down. I guess we were like [the Cigar] people today, we were anxious to establish a record. But when Citation was right, he could beat any horse I ever saw. And I saw Man O’ War.”

CIGAR

No. 1--Oct. 28, 1994, Aqueduct, allowance race, one mile. After starting his career in California with trainer Andy Hassinger Jr., Cigar was sent to Bill Mott in New York for the 1994 season. Winless in four starts on grass for Mott, and showing only two victories in 13 races overall, Cigar went back to dirt. He won by eight lengths, paying $9.

No. 2--Nov. 26, 1994, Aqueduct, NYRA Mile, one mile. Mike Smith, who had won with him in October, chose to ride favored Devil His Due, clearing the way for Jerry Bailey, who has been riding Cigar since. Cigar, who went off at 8-1, won by seven lengths, Devil His Due running second.

Much later, Smith waxed philosophical, saying, “I tell everybody that I rode Cigar when he was only a cigarette.”

No. 3--Jan. 22, 1995, Gulfstream Park, allowance race, 1 1/16 miles. This was the first race Cigar ran in the name of his breeder, Allen Paulson, who had made a swap with his wife. He got Cigar and Madeleine Paulson got Eliza, an Eclipse Award winner and a promising broodmare. Cigar won by two lengths.

No. 4--Feb. 11, 1995, Gulfstream, Donn Handicap, 1 1/8 miles. Holy Bull, the 1994 horse of the year, broke down on the backstretch and Cigar, at 4-1, won by 5 1/2 lengths. Skeptics scoffed when Mott said after the race that Cigar might have won, anyway.

No. 5--March 5, 1995, Gulfstream, Gulfstream Handicap, 1 1/4 miles. Sent off at 1-5, Cigar drew an outside post and was parked six wide most of the way, but he still won by 7 1/2 lengths.

No. 6--April 15, 1995, Oaklawn Park, Oaklawn Handicap, 1 1/8 miles. At the top of the stretch, Cigar was accidentally struck in the face by the whip of Dale Cordova, who was riding Silver Goblin.

“My horse shook his head and pinned his ears, as if the whip had made him mad,” Bailey said.

Silver Goblin finished second, 2 1/2 lengths behind Cigar on the track at Hot Springs, Ark.

No. 7--May 13, 1995, Pimlico, Pimlico Special, 1 3/16 miles. Cigar beat Devil His Due again, this time by 2 1/4 lengths, over the same track in the same race that Citation had won in a walkover 47 years before.

No. 8--June 3, 1995, Suffolk Downs, Massachusetts Handicap, 1 1/8 miles--Trying to revive what had once been the track’s premier race, Suffolk offered a $150,000 winner’s purse plus a $500,000 bonus that fit Cigar’s accomplishments in three other races. Cigar won by four lengths at 1-5.

No. 9--July 2, 1995, Hollywood Park, Hollywood Gold Cup, 1 1/4 miles. Cigar gave Bailey another example of his tenacity. As he was going around the first turn, a big clod of dirt hit Cigar between the eyes. Like the whip incident at Oaklawn, this blow to the head spurred Cigar, and Bailey quit trying to contain him after half a mile. Cigar beat Tinners Way by 3 1/2 lengths.

No. 10--Sept. 16, 1995, Belmont Park, Woodward Stakes, 1 1/8 miles. Cigar, unraced for more than two months, was 1-10 against five rivals and won by 2 3/4 lengths.

Bailey said, “Coming off a layoff, I thought he would be overanxious rather than under-anxious, but that wasn’t the case. When I moved him to the outside, he picked up horses on his own. The surprising thing was looking up at the board and seeing how fast he went [1:47], considering how easily he did it.”

No. 11--Oct. 7, 1995, Belmont, Jockey Club Gold Cup, 1 1/4 miles. Cigar needed encouragement from Bailey before scoring a one-length victory over Unaccounted For.

“It was not his best race,” Mott said. “Jerry had to go to the whip. He had to reach down and ask him.”

No. 12--Oct. 28, 1995, Belmont, Breeders’ Cup Classic, 1 1/4 miles. On a muddy track, Cigar clinched horse-of-the-year honors with a 2 1/2-length win over L’Carriere.

“I haven’t seen him run over jumps [steeplechasing], but maybe that’s the next thing he’ll have to prove,” Mott said.

Cigar, winning his 10th straight in 1995, hung up numbers that were comparable to Spectacular Bid, who was undefeated in nine starts when he was voted horse of the year in 1979. Even the laconic Mott was yelling from his box seat through the stretch of the $3-million race.

“I pulled my socks up once before the race,” he said. “I used to do that before my high school wrestling matches. It seems to settle me down some.”

No. 13--Feb. 10, 1996, Gulfstream, Donn Handicap, 1 1/8 miles. Coming full circle, Cigar won the Donn again, and this time the horse that tested him the most was stablemate Wekiva Springs, who finished second, two lengths back.

No. 14--March 27, 1996, Nad Al Sheba, Dubai World Cup, 1 1/4 miles. Cigar missed the Santa Anita Handicap in early March because of a bruised foot, and to hurriedly get ready for the 6,000-mile trip to the Middle East, Mott had to cram a month’s worth of training into less than two weeks. Cigar was not an overpowering force, and Soul Of The Matter, another American horse, ranged alongside him in the stretch. Cigar dug in and won by half a length.

“I was worried,” Bailey said. “This was not his best performance, but it was his best effort.”

Of the $4-million purse, $2.4 million went to Cigar, who eclipsed the earnings record of $6.6 million that Alysheba had set in 1986-88.

No. 15--June 1, 1996, Suffolk, Massachusetts Handicap, 1 1/8 miles. No quality horses showed up for Cigar’s second MassCap appearance, and despite an impost of 130 pounds, the most weight he has carried, he won by 2 1/4 lengths in a romp that carried him over the $8-million mark.

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Shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, a jet from JFK Airport in New York arrived at the Air France cargo terminal at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. A front hatch opened a few minutes later and Cigar, escorted by Mott, made his way down the elevated ramp to a van that took him the final 15 miles to his barn at Arlington International.

Cigar, the world traveler, was bedded down by 4 p.m. Besides Dubai, his winning streak has taken him from the East Coast to California, and to eight tracks in all. Only the people around him might be a tad edgy about being this close to Citation’s shadow. For Cigar, that shipping exercise Friday was like a walk across the street.

Going for Sweet 16

Cigar’s challengers in today’s $1.05-million Arlington Citation Challenge :

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PP Horse Jockey Wt. 1. Honour And Glory Velazquez 116 2. Eltish Delahssaye 118 3. Dr. Banting Gomez 118 4. Dramatic Gold Nakatani 118 5. Tenants Harbor Albarado 122 6. Polar Expedition Guidry 122 7. Jambalaya Jazz Gryder 120 8. Wild Syn Goodwin 118 9. Unbridled’s Song Smith 118 10. Cigar Bailey 130

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