HEADING FOR HISTORY

About a year ago, trainer Bobby Frankel, ready to leave for Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and his induction into the Racing Hall of Fame, stood at his Del Mar barn and judged that Cigar was a very good horse.

“He’s legitimate,” Frankel said.

Not many horsemen were ordering a pedestal for Cigar then. His winning streak comprised nine races but he hadn’t won the Breeders’ Cup Classic yet. He hadn’t gone to Dubai and won. He hadn’t matched Citation’s feat of 16 in a row.

“The race that sold me was the Hollywood Gold Cup [July 2, 1995],” Frankel said Friday, standing in the same place. “I thought he was vulnerable that day, but he buried us. I thought he was vulnerable [at Arlington International this year] too, but he buried us again. I don’t know if Cigar, on his best day, could beat some of the other great horses on their best days. But he’s very consistent, and he fires every time, and that’s very unusual. I’ve got to put him with the greatest.”

Despite that lavish assessment, Frankel will take another shot at Cigar today in the $1-million Pacific Classic, a race he has won the last four years. But Cigar didn’t run in those, and another win today would run his streak to 17, reducing Citation’s accomplishment to the fine print of the record book.

“Winning this race four times has been a good accomplishment,” Frankel said. “But beating Cigar would be a great accomplishment. Would it be better than winning the Kentucky Derby? If you offered me a Derby or this, I’d take this.”

Tinners Way, Frankel’s horse in the sixth running of the Pacific Classic, has won the race the last two years. But he has also won only one other race in that time, and he’s 8-1, the third choice, on the morning line. Cigar is 1-5, and a crowd of 40,000 will be shoe-horned into the compact Del Mar plant to watch him.

Frankel has bet his horse in Tijuana, at 22-1, but the Mexican bet he feels more comfortable with is Tinners Way at 9-1 to place. Last year, Tinners Way finished second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Cigar, in the Hollywood Gold Cup. And on a muddy track at Belmont Park, he ran seventh as Cigar won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Frankel finished third, almost four lengths behind Cigar, when he tried to beat him with Eltish in the Arlington Citation Challenge on July 13. Frankel said Eltish wouldn’t even have been at Arlington if he hadn’t received a 12-pound break in the weights.

The Pacific Classic is a weight-for-age race, which means Cigar drops six pounds from Arlington, to 124, and carries the same weight as his five other opponents. The others in the 1 1/4-mile race are the front-running Siphon, his stablemate Dare And Go, Dramatic Gold and the longshot Luthier Fever, who will earn $500,000, $100,000 less than the race winner, because he’s the last survivor in the Santa Anita Handicap-Hollywood Gold Cup-Pacific Classic bonus series.

Last February, shortly before Cigar’s owner, Allen Paulson, and his trainer, Bill Mott, were to accept his horse-of-the-year statuette at a dinner in nearby Coronado, The Times polled several respected horsemen--trainers, jockeys, breeders and racing officials--and some of them had reservations about where the horse’s star belonged in the firmament.

That piqued Mott and Paulson, who had expected nothing but praise, and when Cigar won the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park a few days later, one of the first things Paulson said upon arriving at the postrace press conference was, “Maybe this will convince [them].”

Actually, Cigar ran his signal race the following month. He traveled “halfway around the world,” as Mott puts it, and won the $4-million Dubai World Cup, losing the lead by a nostril in the stretch before putting away the gritty Soul Of The Matter. Cigar had gone into the race off a foot injury that shortened his training, and was running for the first time in 12 races without Lasix, the bleeders’ medication.

There are other Hall of Fame trainers at Del Mar besides Frankel, and one of them, Ron McAnally, emphasizes the Dubai race. McAnally trained John Henry, who won seven Eclipse awards and twice was voted horse of the year.

“The Dubai race was one of the greatest I’ve ever seen,” McAnally said. “That was the turning point. After that, he deserved to be put up there with the great ones.”

Other Hall of Famers, Charlie Whittingham and Jack Van Berg, are also Cigar boosters--always, however, showing a lasting loyalty to their own horses.

“If you made me choose between Sunday Silence [1989 horse of the year] and Cigar, I would have to say Sunday Silence,” Whittingham said. “He didn’t have the chance to run as an older horse, and he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, something Cigar never got a chance to do. Sunday Silence was a horse who just didn’t want to get beat, and now he’s become the world’s greatest sire.”

Van Berg trained Alysheba, a Derby winner who was horse of the year in 1988. Alysheba earned $6.6 million, surpassing John Henry’s record and holding the record until Cigar came along. Cigar’s total is $8.8 million.

“I’ve always wished that Alysheba could have run as a 5-year-old,” Van Berg said. “He was getting stronger and stronger when he went off to stud. The only way you can prove who the best horses are would be to somehow line up the top 10 or 12 in the same gate. But Cigar’s one of the great ones. He’s traveled from one end of the world to the other to win. He’s as good as any horse we’ve ever had in this country.”

No one disagrees about the transfusion that the 6-year-old Cigar has given to a game with tired blood.

“Racing needs a star, and he’s it,” Whittingham said. “He might help sell a few cigars out here too.”

Horse Racing Notes

Dernier Empereur, winless in six starts in this country since arriving from France late last year, scored a mild upset at 9-2 in Friday’s $100,000 Escondido Handicap. . . . Bill Leggett, an Eclipse award-winning writer who worked for Sports Illustrated and other publications, died Friday in New York after a short illness. He was 64.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S $1-MILLION PACIFIC CLASSIC

*--*

PP Horse Jockey Trainer Odds 1. Tinner Way Delahoussaye Frankel 8-1 2. Dare And Go Solis Mandella 20-1 3. Siphon Flores Mandella 5-1 4. Cigar Bailey Mott 1-5 5. Luthier Fever Blanc Inda 30-1 6. Dramatic Gold Nakatani 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.

* POST TIME: 3:37 p.m. (First-race post, 12:30 p.m.)

* TELEVISION: ESPN (Coverage begins at 3 p.m.)

* RADIO: KNX (1070)

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Cigar vs. Citation

“Tale of the Tape” for Cigar and Citation compiled by Thoroughbred Racing Communications Inc.

CIGAR

CATEGORY:

Birthdate: April 18, 1990

Place of Birth: Maryland

Sire: Palace Music

Dam: Solar Slew

Color: Bay

Height at Shoulder: 5 feet 7 inches

Weight: 1,024 pounds

Girth: 71 inches

Career Earnings: $8,819,815

Career Record (Sts-1st-2nd-3rd): 29-18-2-4

Career Stakes Wins: 14

Record at 1 1/4 miles on Dirt: 5-5-0-0

Races Won During Streak: 16

*

CITATION

CATEGORY:

Birthdate: April 11, 1945

Place of Birth: Kentucky

Sire: Bull Lea

Dam: Hydroplane II

Color: Bay

Height at Shoulder: 5 feet 4 inches

Weight: 1,075 pounds

Girth: 74 inches

Career Earnings: $1,085,760

Career Record (Sts-1st-2nd-3rd): 45-32-10-2

Career Stakes Wins: 24

Record at 1 1/4 miles on Dirt: 7-5-2-0

Races Won During Streak: 16

*

BREAKDOWN DURING THEIR 16-RACE WIN STREAKS

CIGAR

Dates of Streak: Began Oct. 28, 1994

Age Over Course of Streak: 4-6 years of age

Stakes Wins: 14

Times the Odds-On Favorite: 12

Largest Margin of Victory: 8 lengths

Smallest margin of Victory: 1/2 length

Different Tracks: 9

Highest Weight Carried: 130

Lowest Weight Carried: 111

Money Earned: $8,720,200

*

CITATION

Dates of Streak: April 17, 1948- Jan. 26, 1950

Age Over Course of Streak: 3,5 years of age (Did not race at 4)

Stakes Wins: 13

Times the Odds-On Favorite: 15

Largest Margin of Victory: 11 lengths

Smallest margin of Victory: 1 length

Different Tracks: 9

Highest Weight Carried: 126

Lowest Weight Carried: 117

Money Earned: $647,595

*

AWARDS, MILESTONES:

CIGAR

Horse of Year: 1995

Champion Age-Group Colt: Not named

Earnings: *First horse to top $8 million

*

CITATION

Horse of Year: 1948

Champion Age-Group Colt: 1947 (2-year-old), 1948

Earnings: First horse to top $1 million

* North American

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Smoking the Competition

Cigar’s 16-race win streak, which he will try to extend today in the PacifIc Classic at Del Mar:

*--*

Date Type of Race Track Distance Oct. 28, 1994 Allowance race Aqueduct 1 mile Nov. 26, 1994 NYRA Mile (Grade I) Aqueduct 1 mile Jan. 22, 1995 Allowance race Gulfstream 1 1/16 miles Feb. 11, 1995 Donn Handicap (Grade I) Gulfstream 1 1/8 miles March 5, 1995 Gulfstream Handicap (Grade I) Gulfstream 1 1/4 miles April 15, 1995 Oaklawn Handicap (Grade I) Oaklawn 1 1/8 miles May 13, 1995 Pimlico Special (Grade I) Pimlico 1 3/16 miles June 3, 1995 Massachusetts Handicap Suffolk Downs 1 1/8 miles July 2, 1995 Hollywood Gold (Grade I) Hollywood 1 1/4 miles Sept. 16, 1995 Woodward Stakes (Grade I) Belmont 1 1/8 miles Oct. 7, 1995 Jockey Club Gold Cup (Grade I) Belmont 1 1/4 miles Oct. 28, 1995 Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade I) Belmont 1 1/4 miles Feb. 10, 1996 Donn Handicap (Grade I Stakes) Gulfstream 1 1/8 miles March 27, 1996 Dubai World Cup Nad Al Sheba 1 1/4 miles June 1, 1996 Massachusetts Handicap Suffolk Downs 1 1/8 miles July 13, 1996 Arlington Citation Challenge Arlington 1 1/8 miles

Date Won by Oct. 28, 1994 8 lengths Nov. 26, 1994 7 lengths Jan. 22, 1995 2 lengths Feb. 11, 1995 5 1/2 lengths March 5, 1995 7 1/2 lengths April 15, 1995 2 1/2 lengths May 13, 1995 2 1/4 lengths June 3, 1995 4 lengths July 2, 1995 3 1/2 lengths Sept. 16, 1995 2 3/4 lengths Oct. 7, 1995 1 lengths Oct. 28, 1995 2 1/2 lengths Feb. 10, 1996 2 lengths March 27, 1996 1/2 lengths June 1, 1996 2 1/4 lengths July 13, 1996 3 1/2 lengths

*--*

Note: Jerry Bailey was the jockey for all but the first race in the streak, in which Mike Smith was the rider.