Cigar Mile comes up light
During most of the three decades of its existence, the Cigar Mile has attracted large, diverse fields of top-class horses. The overall quality, however, has diminished in recent years. The race’s last Grade 1-caliber field was arguably in 2013, when 7-year-old Flat Out – making the final start of his 29-race career – bested fellow multiple Grade 1 winners Private Zone, Verrazano, Groupie Doll and Goldencents.
The expected field for this year’s $750,000 Cigar, the marquee event on Saturday’s fourstakes card at Aqueduct, includes just one horse with a Grade 1 win on his resume. Only one of the other seven has won at the Grade 2 level.
The lone Grade 1 winner (2017 BC Juvenile Turf) is Mendelssohn, who has been installed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite. After being eased in the Kentucky Derby, the 3-year-old son of Scat Daddy rebounded to hit the board in the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He then led much of the way in the BC Classic before fading late to finish fifth. Mendelssohn should
appreciate the cutback in distance.
Although Sunny Ridge’s only graded win came in the 2016 Withers Stakes (G3), he has hit the board in seven other graded stakes, including the Champagne and Haskell, both Grade 1s. The 5-yearold Holy Bull gelding (92) hardly ever runs a bad race and, like Mendelssohn, he’ll probably be running at his best distance on Saturday.
Copper Town (5-2) is the wise-guy horse in this year’s Cigar field. The lightly raced 4-year-old, who will be making just his fifth career start, put up a big number in a 6½-furlong allowance win on Oct. 13. Trainer Todd Pletcher is high on the Speightstown colt, and if he’s as good as his backers believe, he could come away from his first stakes appearance with a Grade 1 victory.
Patternrecognition (72) runs back off a frontrunning score in the Kelso Handicap (G2) on Sept. 22, a race in which fellow Cigar entrants Sunny Ridge and Timeline filled out the trifecta. It was the first stakes start for the 5-year-old Adios Charlie horse.
Timeline (10-1), True Timber (12-1), Pat on the Back (15-1) and Stan the Man (301) make up the rest of the Cigar field.
The other three graded races on Saturday’s Aqueduct card are the Remsen (G2) and Demoiselle (G2), both for 2-year-olds, and the Go for Wand Handicap (G3) for older fillies and mares. All three offer purses of $250,000.
Marley’s Freedom tops Go for Wand On Marley’s Freedom’s first trip to New York back in August, she romped in Saratoga’s Ballerina Stakes (G1) to notch her third straight graded win. Ten weeks later, as the 4-5 favorite, she finished a closeup fourth in the BC Filly & Mare Sprint, beaten less than a length. In tomorrow’s Go for Wand, the 4-year-old Blame filly is again the odds-on choice.
Why is Bob Baffert shipping one of his top horses from California to New York to run in a Grade 3 race at Aqueduct on the first day of December? One explanation is that, a win Saturday would likely sew up the Eclipse Award for female sprinter for his charge, even though the Go for Wand is contested at a mile,
Marley’s Freedom will be conceding two to 12 pounds to her seven rivals. Your Love, whose biggest win came in the ungraded Shine Again Stakes this past summer at Saratoga, is next at 4-1 on the morning line.