With Insurance Claim Settled, Paulson Wants to Buy Back Cigar
A $25 million insurance claim over Cigar’s infertility is settled, and Allen Paulson will try to buy back the two-time horse of the year.
“The horse is infertile, and the insurers have agreed to the settlement,” said Terence Minehan, managing director of Nelson Stevenson Bloodstock.
If Paulson succeeds, as expected, in buying Cigar from the insurers, he has said he does not anticipate racing the 7-year-old horse again.
“I am just waiting for the payment,” Paulson told ABC Radio Sports on Monday from his office at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. “There’s a consortium of quite a few people, but I hope to get the money this week.
“I want to provide a good home for the horse for the rest of his life. He gave a lot to me and my family and the world.”
The insurance policy, arranged through Nelson Stevenson, required the horse be bred to 20 mares twice and get at least 60% of them in foal to be considered fertile. None of the 34 mares bred to Cigar has become pregnant.
Cigar, the horse of the year in 1995 and 1996, was retired at the end of 1996 after a career in which he tied Citation’s modern-day North American record of 16 consecutive victories and earned just less than $10 million.
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