Cigar Insurers Try to Break Fertile Ground

Cigar, a racing great but a dud at stud who has yet to impregnate a mare, is getting fertility treatment, starting with the equine version of relaxation therapy.

“The best thing we’ve got going for us now is that we know that performance athletes oftentimes have fertility problems after they quit competing,” says Cigar’s veterinarian/therapist, Phil McCarthy.

Cigar earned $10 million in his four-year career. This spring, his first season at Ashford Stud, he failed to put a single mare in foal and his sperm was found to be misshapen and immobile. Ashford and Allen Paulson, who bred Cigar, collected a record $25-million infertility insurance payment.

The insurers aren’t giving up, however. They have moved the horse to a farm owned by McCarthy, a stallion reproductive specialist.

McCarthy says he’ll treat Cigar “with as much respect as we can because he’s an American sports hero.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for average punting yardage in a season?

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D-i-s-r-e-s-p-e-c-t: Buffalo Bills star Bruce Smith is holding out, determined not to play for what he deems the insulting offer the team has on the table.

“I’m not going to tolerate it,” he said. “I just wanted to be treated fairly and with respect so I can walk away with my dignity.”

The Bills have offered Smith, 34, a five-year, $22-million contract, including a $5-million signing bonus. Dignity comes dear these days.

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Sign here, kid: A collegian turning pro has to get used to NBA centers and power forwards . . . and agents.

Cincinnati’s Danny Fortson was pursued by dozens. One offered a $250,000 “line of credit.”

Another, Leland Hardy of Alumni Entertainment Co., sent Fortson a marketing plan that included appearing in feature stories in African magazines, a projected cameo role in a music video with LL Cool J and meetings with 15 African heads of state to lay the groundwork for making Fortson a star on the continent.

Fortson signed with Advantage International, a Washington, D.C. firm, but fired them when no one showed up to accompany him at the pre-draft camp in Chicago.

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Albert won’t believe this one: Baltimore’s Jimmy Key, named to the American League All-Star team, declined to attend. He was getting married that weekend.

Yankee Manager Joe Torre named Key to the team anyway, triggering a $50,000 bonus. Key donated it to charity.

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Trivia answer: Sammy Baugh, who averaged 51.4 yards per punt in 1940.

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And finally: Whatever happened to . . . Izzy?

The much-criticized mascot for the Atlanta Olympics wasn’t allowed to appear at the opening ceremonies and his likeness has all but disappeared.

Blaze, the mascot of the Atlanta Paralympics, now appears on Georgia license plates but no one can find Izzy.

“Izzy was an unqualified disaster,” said artist Trevor Irvin, who created Blaze. “It just didn’t work and it wasn’t going to work. It was embarrassing to me as an Atlantan. Every time you go through an airport, every time you mention where you’re from, someone mentions the blue thing.”

Of course, the Atlanta Olympics could have gone better, too.