Matchless Cigar Named Horse of the Year Again

By BILL CHRISTINE

Feb. 5, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A career that soared reached yet another lofty plateau Tuesday night with the Eclipse Award announcement that Cigar had been voted horse of the year for 1996.

Cigar is the first winner of consecutive awards since Affirmed in 1978 and ’79. The only others were Forego, the lone three-time winner, in 1974, ’75 and ‘76, and Secretariat, who won titles in 1972 and ’73.

Cigar, a 6-year-old in 1996, was the oldest horse-of-the-year winner since John Henry, who was a 9-year-old in 1984.

Cigar had been named best older male in January and was a heavy favorite for horse of the year. Even before Tuesday’s announcement, which was made in conjunction with the Eclipse Awards dinner in Bal Harbour, Fla., he had been rubbing shoulders with a lot of fast company in the record books.

After winning all 10 starts in 1995, Cigar came within two votes of sweeping that horse-of-the-year election. This time, there was scattered support for Skip Away among the three voting organizations--Daily Racing Form, turf writers and track racing secretaries--but Cigar was still a top-heavy winner. He collected 267 votes to Skip Away’s 25.

He earned $4.8 million in 1995, his first horse-of-the-year campaign, breaking the single-year record that had been held by Sunday Silence. Then in March of ‘96, Cigar traveled nearly 6,000 miles to the Persian Gulf, won the $4-million Dubai World Cup and broke Alysheba’s earnings record. And in July, at Arlington International in suburban Chicago, Cigar won his 16th consecutive race, matching Citation’s achievement and setting off a wave of comparisons of horses from different eras.

Cigar won only one race after that, losing three of his last four starts, but he was competitive in all and finished the year with five wins, two seconds and a third in eight tries.

Cigar’s 1996 earnings, $4,910,000, broke his own record and increased his overall total to $9,999,815 as he outdistanced Alysheba by more than $3 million.

Cigar’s breeding career will begin this month at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky. Cigar’s stud fee is $75,000 per mare.

Cigar’s owner, Allen Paulson, his trainer, Bill Mott, and their jockey, Jerry Bailey, also were repeat winners of individual Eclipse Awards and received their trophies at Tuesday night’s dinner.

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Horsepower

Eclipse Award horse-of-the-year winners:

1971: Ack Ack

1972: Secretariat

1973: Secretariat

1974: Forego

1975: Forego

1976: Forego

1977: Seattle Slew

1978: Affirmed

1979: Affirmed