2013 Cigar Mile: So Many Questions

I am really looking forward to the 2013 Cigar Mile, probably more as the Horse Racing Nation NYRA correspondent than as a handicapper. There are so many questions about the very contentious field and what will happen during the race, that it is going to be much easier to write about the outcome than to pick the winner.

 

With the lure of purse incentives for grade one winners to run for $750,000 and Breeders’ Cup champions going after $1,000,000, the Cigar Mile has one of the strongest fields assembled in 2013.

 

The field, which unexpectedly drew 11 horses, includes six grade one winners: Goldencents (BC Dirt Mile), Groupie Doll (BC Filly and Mare Sprint), Verrazano (Wood Memorial at AQU and Haskell), Capo Bastone (King’s Bishop), Flat Out (Jockey Club Gold Cup), and Private Zone (Vosburgh).

It appears that Goldencents and Groupie Doll will be facing competition that is much more difficult than the Breeders’ Cup races that they won some four weeks ago.

 

The NYRA Mile was first created and run in 1988 as a way to get the top sprinters and routers to compete in the same race. This silver edition of the race certainly fits the bill.

This year’s field is loaded with sprinters: Capo Bastone, Clearly Now, Forty Tales, Groupie Doll, Laugh Track, and Private Zone. Can these sprinters get the full one-turn mile distance? Or will it be one of the routers, the horses that have had significant success at the mile and beyond: Flat Out, Goldencents, Praetereo, Saratoga Snacks, and Verrazano?

 

Since the year 2000, more of the Cigar Mile winners have done the best running of their careers at a mile or longer. Only Kodiak Kowboy in 2009, Congaree in 2002 and 2003, and Left Bank in 2001 had most of their success in sprints and were able to stretch out to handle the mile.

A couple of trainers have both running styles covered with their multiple entrants. Doug O’Neill has Private Zone sprinting and Goldencents going long.  Todd Pletcher has sprinters in Capo Bastone and Forty Tales and Verrazano as a router.

 

A favorite angle of some handicappers is the Breeders’ Cup bounce. Proponents of this bounce like to eliminate any horse whose last start was in the World Championships. If so, that would leave only four possible winners in Forty Tales, Clearly Now, Praetereo, and Saratoga Snacks because the other seven runners all made their last start in a Breeders’ Cup race. I don’t put much credence in this angle because in 2012 there were plenty of horses that came back and ran well.

 

In 2012 Groupie Doll won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and then narrowly missed winning the Cigar Mile. This year she gets an extra week of rest after her win at Santa Anita.

 

 

I am borrowing the title from one of Brian Zipse’s recent blogs about the Cigar Mile. Verrazano is a horse that many racing fans love to dismiss, saying that he can’t handle any adversity. That may be true, but he was at his best at Aqueduct with his most gritty victory in the Wood Memorial. He is one of the few horses that has any experience on this track. Add in his record of six wins in nine career starts and I can’t wait to see if Verrazano can get his greatest victory in his last start.