The great horse Cigar reasserted his status as racing's probable Horse of the Year, maybe of the decade and possibly of his time when he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup yesterday while Thunder Gulch, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and his chief challenger, ran a distant fifth.
It was the 11th straight victory for Cigar, who succeeded Holy Bull as the outstanding horse of the American turf last February when Holy Bull broke down during the Donn Handicap and was retired. But it was the first time he had raced against Thunder Gulch, the 3-year-old star who ripped off a string of impressive successes in the Florida Derby, the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, the Travers and the Kentucky Cup Classic.
So, they met on the Breeders' Cup Preview day at Belmont Park, casting long shadows three weeks down the road to the Breeders' Cup with its promise of a return match in the $3 million Classic. But the dress rehearsal yesterday proved no contest: Cigar won it commandingly by one length over Unaccounted For, and then it was almost 10 lengths back to Star Standard and even more to Dernier Empereur and Thunder Gulch.
"I don't know how you'd get a better horse than Cigar," said Allen Paulson, the onetime airline pilot who names his horses for navigation check points. "When you think there's 20,000-plus foals born every year, it's real big. I think he's a superhorse."
For Bill Mott, who trains Cigar, the victory was sweet success for his dominant horse, who now enjoys the longest winning streak in recent times. For D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Thunder Gulch for Michael Tabor of Monte Carlo, it was a sobering moment of defeat on a day when he won the Frizette for 2-year-old fillies with Golden Attraction and the Beldame with Serena's Song, who outraced the queen of New York's fillies, Heavenly Prize.
On a day of exceptional races aimed at the Breeders' Cup series, Mighty Forum won the Kelso Handicap at booming odds of 65-1, Turk Passer won the Turf Classic at 17-1 and Maria's Mon won the Moet Champagne for 2-year-old colts while Unbridled's Song was running fourth and Hennessy, the prize pupil of the Lukas barn, faded to sixth.
Somehow, only 15,451 fans showed up for Belmont's special day, which was staged under overcast and occasionally drizzling skies over a track that looked heavy but was rated "fast." But this was a day when great horses overcame the conditions, and none did it with more power than Cigar.
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