Cigar’s Chief Foe Out of Race

Soul Of The Matter, the biggest threat to Cigar’s attempt to win a record 17th consecutive race in Saturday’s $1-million Pacific Classic, suffered a career-ending injury Wednesday morning and has been withdrawn.

Trainer Richard Mandella said it appears Soul Of The Matter pulled a ligament that surrounds one of the sesamoid bones in his lower right foreleg during a workout. The injury is not life-threatening and Mandella said more will be known in the next couple of days.

Owner-breeder Burt Bacharach’s 5-year-old West Virginia-bred was injured while completing a :48 1/5 workout under exercise rider John Turner. He would have been the second betting choice in the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic, which drew six horses when entries were taken Wednesday. Cigar, who needs one more victory to surpass the 16-race streak that Citation posted in 1948 and 1950, has been installed as the 1-5 favorite.

“The work was fine,” Mandella said. “But he was noticeably limping afterward. Then in seconds he was lame. It took an ambulance to get him back to the barn. This is not a terrible injury, but he’s going to be in a little bit of pain for a few days.”

Late last week, Mandella discussed the difficulties he has had treating Soul Of The Matter’s four problem feet.

“A lot of horses have foot problems,” Mandella said. “But this one has four of them. There are a lot of things we do, and we do something different almost every day.”

Soul Of The Matter’s record--only 16 starts during a four-year career--smacked of an unsound horse, and now that career is apparently over.

Mandella left little doubt that Soul Of The Matter’s next assignment will be at a breeding farm in Kentucky next year. Bacharach and Brereton Jones, former governor of Kentucky, struck a breeding deal months ago.

“There’s a very slight possibility that all he has is broken blood vessels,” Mandella said. “But that would be a surprise. . . .”

The last time Soul Of The Matter missed a race, the Hollywood Gold Cup on June 30, Mandella won the stake anyway with Siphon, who’ll run in the Pacific Classic with another Mandella horse, Dare And Go, who was fifth in the Gold Cup and second in the Bel Air Handicap at Hollywood in his last two starts.

The defection of Soul Of The Matter brought Dramatic Gold into the race. Dramatic Gold, who has only one allowance win in his last 14 starts, was second to Cigar, 3 1/2 lengths back, in the Arlington race.

Also running Saturday is Tinners Way, the 8-1 third choice on the morning line even though he has won the Pacific Classic the last two years. Tinners Way, whose trainer, Bobby Frankel, also won the 1992-93 Classics with Missionary Ridge and Bertrando, has won only one other race, this year’s Californian, while winning those two Classics.

The other starter Saturday is Luthier Fever, who is 30-1 on the morning line and will go off much higher. Just by running, Luthier Fever will earn $500,000, $100,000 less than the winner, in a bizarre twist to a bonus series that links the Santa Anita Handicap with the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic. Bonus rules require that a horse run in all three races, and Luthier Fever is the only horse that can qualify.

In his 16 starts, Soul Of The Matter had seven wins, four seconds and two thirds and earned $2.3 million. Because of the recurring foot problems, Mandella frequently played catch-up in running him. He was fifth in the 1994 Kentucky Derby, which was won by Go For Gin, but then didn’t run for four months, winning the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs off one prep race.

A month later, Soul Of The Matter finished fourth as Concern won the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. Then he took eight months off, returning in July 1995 to win the Bel Air Handicap. After a second-place finish behind Tinners Way in the Pacific Classic, he beat that rival about two months later in the Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita. In another Breeders’ Cup Classic, Soul Of The Matter met Cigar for the first time and finished fourth.

Soul Of The Matter has made only two starts this year, and his final race was his best--a second, beaten by half a length, after briefly nosing ahead of Cigar in the stretch of the $4-million Dubai World Cup.

Cigar, after working five furlongs in 1:01 at Saratoga on Wednesday, is scheduled to be flown to California today. Saturday’s crowd is expected to break Del Mar’s attendance record of 34,697, set on opening day in 1994.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Field

Saturday’s Pacific Classic at Del Mar:

*--*

PP Horse Jockey Trainer Odds 1. Tinners Way Eddie Delahoussaye Robert Frankel 8-1 2. Dare And Go Alex Solis Richard Mandella 20-1 3. Siphon David Flores Richard Mandella 5-1 4. Cigar Jerry Bailey Bill Mott 1-5 5. Luthier Fever Brice Blanc Eduardo Inda 30-1 6. Dramatic Gold Corey Nakatani David Hofmans 12-1

*--*

Weights: All carry 124 pounds.

Distance: 1 1/4 miles.

Purse: $1 million. 1st, $600,000; 2nd, $200,000; 3rd, $120,000; 4th, $60,000; 5th, $20,000.

Pacific Classic post time: 3:37 p.m. (First-race post, 12:30 p.m.)

Television: ESPN