Saratoga Opens Campaign Today

Saratoga and important horses are roughly synonymous. Horses of great accomplishment and budding promise race here because they are important, have the potential to become important or claim a former importance. A 2-year-old Secretariat first screamed for attention here. Man o’ War suffered the only defeat of his lifetime on this ground. Scores of champions of lesser legend competed in front of the same wooden grandstand that creaks in spots but still stands. But the most important horse of all those gathered Friday for the first afternoon of racing at Saratoga’s traditional summer season is stabled at Greentree, which is a fine example of still-elegant former importance located adjacent to the nation’s oldest racetrack.

Trainer Bill Mott stables his Saratoga division at Greentree, and Cigar has been here since July 14, the day after he won the Citation Challenge at Arlington International in what is widely regarded as his best effort in building his record-equaling 16-race winning streak. He trained here last summer, too. But the reigning and presumptive Horse of the Year has not run here since 1994. That was before Mott shifted him to the main track and Cigar became Cigar. Cigar, the star, will never run at Saratoga because he is likely to be retired after the Breeders’ Cup.

The race in which Cigar’s streak would become the longest of the modern era will be run at Del Mar, near San Diego, at a place grand in its own right sometimes called the Saratoga of the blonde. After missing the Santa Anita Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup because of minor hoof injuries, Cigar’s only race of the season in California will be the most important of the longest winning streak in 46 years. The Aug. 10 Pacific Classic was on trainer Allen Paulson’s original itinerary for Cigar this year. Had he kept to the intended schedule, it was to have been his third West Coast appearance. The detours have resulted in an appearance at Suffolk Downs for the Massachusetts Handicap in June and the race at Arlington. But none at Saratoga.

Still, much of Cigar’s training will be done on the main track at Saratoga, where he will play to the traditional breakfast crowd and his presence will lend a special color to the Spa.

The opening day program has a distinct Saratoga flavor -- four races for 2-year-olds, two of which, the Sanford and Schuylerville, are graded stakes run at 6 furlongs. Turf races, imperiled by torrential storms yesterday, will be radically altered if shifted to the main course.

The very fast Kelly Kip and highly regarded Boston Harbor are among nine colts entered for the Sanford. Kelly Kip has overpowered the two fields he has encountered, which includes the Tremont Stakes at Belmont. Boston Harbor, part of the Wayne Lukas Stable’s 2-year-old vanguard, is also undefeated after two races, the second a 4-length romp in the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs last month.

Move, undefeated after three races in Kentucky, will attempt a third stakes victory against 10 fillies in the Schuylerville. City College, a Lukas-trained winner of her last at Monmouth, makes her stakes debut.

The juvenile potential is not confined to the stakes, however. In the day’s second race, for 2-year-old fillies, there will be two closely watched debuts: Royal Indy is a half-sister to Preakness winner Louis Quatorze and the first horse by champion A.P. Indy to race in New York; Hidden Reserve is a half-sister to champion filly Inside Information sired by Mr. Prospector. Saratoga.