Cigar
Fan ClubCigar
Fan ClubBay Stallion Born April 18, 1990 in Maryland
Palace Music x Solar Slew by Seattle Slew
Solar Slew and Cigar in Maryland, 10 days after his birth.
1995 and 1996 Eclipse Award Winning Older Horse and Horse Of The Year!
Allen E. Paulson | Jerry D. Bailey | William I. Mott | Cigar's Pedigree and Races
Coming soon are pages on the Dubai World Cup (and Cigar in Dubai) and a Trivia/Survey Page!
The Dubai World Cup page has arrived! Check it out!
1: Allowance, Aqueduct, NY
2: NYRA Mile H, g.1, Aqu
3: Allowance, Gulfstream Park, FL
4: Donn H, g.1, GP
5: Gulfstream Park H, g.1, GP
6: Oaklawn Park H, g.1, Oaklawn Park, AR
7: Pimlico Special H, g.1, Pimlico Racecourse, MD
8: Massachussetts H, g.3, Suffolk Downs, MA
9: Hollywood Gold Cup, g.1, Hollywood Park, CA
10: Woodward S, g.1, Belmont Park, NY
11: Jockey Club Gold Cup, g.1, Bel
12: Breeders' Cup Classic, g.1, Bel
13: Donn H, g.1, GP
14: Dubai World Cup, g.1, Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, UAE
15: Massachussetts H, g.3, Suf
16: Arlington Citation Challenge S, Arlington International, IL
By: Katy Nelson
The defending champion slowly trotted back to be unsaddled. He knew he had been beaten but he lifted his elegant, once so proud head as the sound of the crowd cheering reached his dropping ears. He may have pranced and danced if he had won, but he hadn't. He refused to do more than lift his fallen head. Yes, they were cheering for him for what he had given to racing, and his fans, was far more than anyone could ever have asked for.
This remarkable story started seven years ago in Maryland at a farm called Country Life.
On the morning of April 18, 1990, at 5:45 a.m., a tiny bay colt, with an irregular star and three white socks, was born to the mare Solar Slew. By Palace Music, a grandson of the great Northern Dancer, and out of Solar Slew, a daughter of 1977 Triple Crown winner -- Seattle Slew, this colt had a pedigree for excellence on grass.
A few months later the colt and his dam were shipped to Brookside Farms Kentucky, where he was broken by Ted and Mac Carr. They soon found out his real nature. During the weaning and breaking process the Solar Slew colt (this was his name for his first few months of life because he had not yet been given an official name) was very docile and easy going - never causing much of a ruckus, but out of 'school' he was a real fiesty young stud -- always getting into trouble and banging himself up (hence his nickname "The Hammer"). One such example of this folows. It happened one night when he was about seven months old. He, and some other weanlings, were let out to pasture for the night and were spooked by a deer running through their field. All the foals got banged and cut up but none nearly as bad as The Hammer. He had run into a fence and torn his shoulder open. It required stitches and eventually healed but he now has a nasty scar to accompany his distinctive blaze
When the colt was shipped to the racetrack Mac Carr couldn't help thinking what a good pony that horse would make - with his quiet, easygoing disposition. Cigar, as he was called, was sent to the barn of Richard Lundy, who was soon fired. Alex Hassinger was then promoted from assistant trainer to head trainer and he prepared Cigar for his first race.
It rained so much on the day of February 21, 1993 that the race of thirteen original starters was reduced to only nine starters (including Cigar) at post time. Cigar did not like the slop and struggled home 7th, but eleven weeks later he was back to try again. This time the dirt was dry and Cigar romped home. Alex then switched Cigar over to the grass for his next few starts with the thoughts of 'saving' this horse for a longer racing career -- Cigar was still developing and his bones, particularly his knees, were still very fragile and Alex thought that the hard pounding Cigar would do running on dirt would force an unnecessary injury or an early retirement, so he moved him to the more forgiving grass surface. Cigar was a mediocre grass horse, winning only once in eleven tries, but only twice finishing worse than fourth - once because of his aching knees.
Then came the day when Allen Paulson (Cigar's owner) decided to move some of his horses out east, to a promising young trainer -- William I. Mott, who had trained some of Allen's horses he'd owned in partnership. Cigar was chosen as one of the horses who would go, and so it was that Cigar came to his last trainer. Billy ran Cigar a few more times on the grass until that history changing day -- October 28, 1994. Cigar was run in the Gr. I NYRA Mile on the dirt and smoked his competittion. That was the first of a record tying sixteen straight wins, including a "perfect 10" in 1995.
Cigar continued rolling of wins including back to back Donn Handicaps and Mass Caps, a record setting win in the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic, which closed out his perfect 10 season, along with a win in the inaugural $4 million Dubai World Cup, in which he overcame a foot abbess, a trip half way around the world, racing under lights for the first time, and a wide trip to prevail by a long neck over fellow American Soul Of The Matter. Cigar won his sixteenth consecutive race at Arlington International Racecourse on July 13, 1996, in front of a roaring crowd who gave the champion a twenty minute ovation.
The streak ending that fateful August 10. Cigar was running in the $1 million Pacific Classic and got caught in a torrid speed duel where he and the others reeled of fractions of 0:23, 0:45.4, 1:09.1, and 1:59.4 (record times at most tracks!). At the wire Cigar was beaten by three and a half lengths in a ruuner-up effort to Dare And Go, a horse who had come from way out of it to collar Cigar in mid stretch. The other horses in the duel? Siphon, the "speed ball", finished third, seven lengths behing Cigar, and Dramatic Gold finished a distant fourth, beating a long-shot who had only been entered to collect the $500,000 entitled to him for running in the 'Big Cap, the 'Gold Cup, and the 'Classic, and beating a horse who was pulled up, vanned off the track, and never ran again.
Cigar went on to win the Woodward for the second consecutive year, then lose the Jockey Club Gold Cup, by a head, to the highly regarded three year old, Skip Away. It was later discovered that he had been running on a sore foot - a resurfaced abbess from his days before Dubai. Then came his final race. Back for a try at another record, Cigar was attempting to become the first horse in history to win two Breeders' Cup Classics (let alone back-to-back!) -- no horse had ever accomplished this before, many had tried, but they had all failed. Racing wide the entire way, on an inside, speed bias track, Cigar fell short by a neck, placing third behind Alphabet Soup and Louis Quatorze.
Cigar retired after the Breeders' Cup, quieting rumors of a match race between him and Arc winner Helisso, but his story does not end here.
Cigar was officially retired on October 31, 1996, and bid farewell to at two farewell ceremonies.
The first was at the 113th National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden on November 2nd, complete with a parade dowmn Seventh Avenue. Cigar was under saddle for the event and the whole 'Cigar Team' -- owner Allen Paulson, trainer Bill Mott, Jockey Jerry Bailey, and groom Juan ?, was onhand. There were many tears and cheers as Bailey rode the champion around the arena again and again. He was then presented with a golden horseshoe from the Budweiser Clydesdales.
The second ceremony was on November 9th at Churchill Downs -- the home of the Kentucky Derby and one of the few major North American tracks Cigar did not race upon. Many fans lined the rail as Cigar was paraded between the seventh and eighth races for a final farewell. Bailey hoped astride Cigar and jogged him the wrong way up the track then breezed him down the famed Churchill Downs homestretch -- the last time Cigar would step foot onto a racetrack. After Cigar returned to the grandstand, he was blanketed and walked before his fans. Churchill Downs president, Tom Meeker, made it a point of asking Mott, Paulson, and the fans if they wanted to see Cigar race on emore time -- just enough to push him over the $10 million mark in career earnings. Mott and Paulson graciously declined but the fans went wild!
Two days later, on November 11th, Cigar arrived at Ashford Stud -- the American division of Ireland's famed Coolmore Stud, to begin his new career as a stud. This came just days after a surprising deal was announced -- Paulson had sold 75% of Cigar to Coolmore and Michael Tabor, valuing Cigar at $25 million!! After Cigar investigated his new surroundings, he was bedded down in a stall between 1995 Kentucky Derby winner, Thunder Gulch, and champion South American sire, Sourthern Halo. He gazed out his window at the rolling, snow covered landscape, that would now be his home. He then rolled around in his spacious stall, a luxury he didn't have at the track, as if to say he was happy here. Cigar began breeding mares in February, and in March, when twenty of the thirty-six mares bred to him were checked for pregnancy, none were found in foal. It has since been determined that his sperm are abnormally shaped and are lacking in mobility. They are resting him at a private farm (where no fans or reporters are allowed to visit) in hopes of naturally increasing his fertility. If this does not work they will try therapy and supplementing him with a sperm producing horomone - GnRH. There was a point were Paulson concidered returning Cigar to the racetrack if he proved sterile but if Cigar proves completely sterile he will either be bought back by Paulson (Cigar is owned by the underwriters who paid the $25 million infertility claim) to live out his life in peace at Paulson's Brookside Farms (where Cigar grew up, right next door to Ashford Stud) or donated to the Kentucky Horse Park's Barn of Champions (where the late great gelding Forgo lived out his retirement days).
It should be noted here that in 1995 Cigar set a single seasons earning record for a North American based Thoroughbred of $4,819,800 surpassing Sunday Silence's mark of $4,578,454. Cigar came back in 1996 to rewrite the record books again with his $4,910,000 earned -- making him the holder of the record and runner-up record of most moneies won in a single season -- an amazing accomplishment! As a result of this feat Cigar is North America's only racehorse to break the $9 million mark in career earnings with $9,999,813. Also as a result of this feat Cigar is currently the world's leading money earner of all time ahead of three Japanese based horse -- Narita Brian's $8,552,184 earned come in second! It should also be noted here that Citation (the horse whose streak of sixteen wins in a row Cigar was chasing) lost his would of been seventeenth straight race when asked to carry 130 pounds for the first time. Cigar won his fifteenth in a row by two and a quarter lengths carrying, for the first time, 130 pounds! Cigar also won his sixteenth consecutive race by three and a half lengths carrying 130 pounds! One final note -- Cigar was voted Horse Of The Year and Champion Older Horse in 1995 with a perfect 10 for 10 record -- the first male horse with a perfect since since Spectacular Bid, and the first horse since Personal Ensign. Cigar was again voted Horse Of The Year and Champion Older Horse in 1996.
By: Katy Nelson
As you wake
On the morning of a race
You wonder why you are not fed
But then, you realize what lies ahead.
You get pumped up,
And want to hurry up.
The fire in your heart,
And eagles in your eyes
Gives you away.
"Let me fly today!" you say.
When they take you to the ring
You whinny loud and sing.
Then they take you to the post.
The gates spring open and you coast.
Bailey fights the flame burning inside.
He holds you back till it's time to fly.
You pick off rivals, one by one.
"Boy," you think, "what fun!"
As you glide on by the line
You're all alone.
You've won! No lie!
In the winner's circle you pose and prance.
By your actions they are entranced.
Later that night, as you sleep,
You make not a peep.
But, you dream of what was,
And what could have been.
But for you to be beaten,
They'd have to have been cheatin'.
By: Katy Nelson
Cigar is an
Ice-cool,
Great, and
Awesome
Racehorse who
Rules. He
Usually
Likes to
Earn his money on
Somewhat dry racetracks.
By: Katy Nelson
If you were to look in the mirror,
What would you see?
A cat? A dog? A bumble bee?
No. You'd, of course,
See a horse ...
A horse with 16 straight recorded wins.
A horse whose light never dims.
A horse who's tail is silver and blond.
A horse who's won two straight Donns.
A horse who's first on the world money chart.
A horse who's stolen the people's hearts.
And, when we look at you,
We learn something new ...
Great horses like you Are far and few.
By: Katy Nelson
When you opened your eyes for the very first time,
What did you see?
When you struggled to stand and take your first step,
What did you feel?
When they took you to the pasture for the very first time,
To run and have fun under the sun,
Did you realize then what you would become?
And now that you are what you were to become,
Don't forget who you are ...
The incomparable, invincible, unbeatable,
C I G A R !
By: Katy Nelson
Nearly two decades ago
When Secretariat was around,
We thought we'd never see another like him
Roam Earth's mighty grounds.
But now you are here.
And it is, oh, so clear,
That we were wrong when we thought,
That the greats could never be caught.
By: Katy Nelson
super
stunning
smashing
stake's winning
statuesque
stallion
standing 16.2 hh
strong
sleek
sweet
special
smokin'
stud (although he's a dud)
superior
swift
stupendous
spectacular
By: Katy Nelson
Your mares were not bred,
And your foals will not be,
But we know you'll keep fighting,
Cause that's what you proved to be.
Allen E. Paulson | Jerry D. Bailey | William I. Mott | Cigar's Pedigree and Races
To See Bree Anna's Cigar Page Click Here
To See Cigar's Official Home Page Click Here
To See My Model Horse Site Click Here
 art by Cindy Pierson |
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