Zipse: Cigar Mile is a deserving win for Hoist the Gold

Saturday’s winner of the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile will not get many excited. I think he should.

Hoist the Gold threw down the gauntlet from the opening bell at Aqueduct and dominated the prestigious race from start to finish. He set very fast fractions on the muddy and sealed track and could never be touched on the way to a 4 1/2-length romp in a final time of 1:34.28.

With the victory, racing’s newest millionaire has now won five times in 26 career races. That winning percentage is not sexy. Most racing fans want horses to win all the time. I look at it in a different way.

The fact that this son of Mineshaft has started 26 times through his 4-year-old season is something to celebrate.

In the last 12 months, which includes a third-place finish in last year’s Malibu Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita, Hoist the Gold has run 11 times. In that stretch, he had an allowance victory at Ellis Park for trainer Dallas Stewart. The other ten races all were graded stakes.

This horse dances every dance, and he goes largely unnoticed because of a low winning percentage. That should begin to change after his Cigar Mile performance.

Hoist the Gold clearly is getting better with maturity. The 4-year-old colt has now won two of his last three races for his owner Dream Team One Racing Stable.

A sharp win in the Phoenix Stakes (G2) at Keeneland in October sent him to Santa Anita and the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).

He could manage only a sixth-place finish that day, but Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez, who also rode him to the win at Keeneland, had advice for Stewart after the race.

Explaining that Hoist the Gold did not appreciate the kickback behind horses in the Sprint, he asked for more distance for his relatively new mount. His trainer obliged and he entered the 12-horse Cigar Mile under the radar as an 8.70-1 medium long shot.

Breaking outside from the 11 hole, Hoist the Gold went right to the lead under Velazquez and raced to early fractions 22.41 and 44.88 seconds. He had early pressure from Pipeline, but that would last only so long.

After three-quarters of a mile in 1:09.04, Hoist the Gold was in charge and showing no sign of slowing down. The four-time stakes winner Señor Buscador, who came from last and rallied wide, ran a big race in second but was no match for the winner.

Will Hoist the Gold continue on from this big win and become a top horse in 2024? Only time will tell, but the potential to do so is certainly there.

I’m reminded of a horse from about three decades ago named Black Tie Affair. Like Hoist the Gold, he was a hard-hitting horse early in his career who raced primarily in one-turn races. He also danced every dance and never was considered among racing’s elite.

Things would change at the age of 5 for that son of Miswaki. His winning percentage was far from sexy when he stretched out to win a stakes race going gate to wire to close out his 4-year-old season, but as a fully mature and experienced 5-year-old, he was all but unbeatable.

Using his free-wheeling early speed, Black Tie Affair won six straight graded stakes to close out his career, including the 10-furlong Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. From relative obscurity early in his career, he became the 1991 horse of the year.

It’s impossible to predict such success for Hoist the Gold next year, but the similarities are there.

For now, I would like to celebrate the biggest victory of Hoist the Gold's career. He's a horse who dances every dance and is only getting better with age.

Given the new option of going right to the lead in races longer than he has run for much of his career, who knows what he can accomplish in 2024?