Cigar Mile: Brisset has Mullikin poised to go the extra furlong

In the most anticipated race to bridge the Breeders’ Cup last month and the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) next month, the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile will be a one-turn crossroads between horses who are passing each directions through racing’s eight-furlong Maginot Line.

Four of the 10 entrants still in the field Saturday are staying put at one mile. Three are cutting back from routes last out. Three are stretching from seven furlongs.

And then there is 4-year-old Mullikin. Even though he is the 3-1 morning-line favorite, he is extending from his third-place finish in the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar. Unlike the other nine horses at Aqueduct who range in age from 3 to 6, Mullikin is the only one who never has raced a mile.

“The mile, that’s something I always wanted to try with him,” his trainer Rodolphe Brisset said. “Obviously, the fact that it’s one mile, one turn, it’s always good when you know you have a seven-eighths specialist, and so we’ll see what happens.”

Especially one who has gained ground late in every race he has run this year. A $500,000 Violence colt owned by Siena Farm and WinStar Farm, Mullikin added at least a length to his lead in the final furlong of his four victories. They included the John A. Nerud (G2) at Aqueduct and the Forego (G1) at Saratoga, each going seven-eighths of a mile. Going shorter in the Breeders’ Cup he made up two places and a length in the deep stretch.

Even though three-time allowance winner Pipeline and long shot Nelson Avenue are prone to flashing early speed, Mullikin is the prime candidate to set the pace Saturday with Flavien Prat riding from post 5. Then again, Brisset, 36, a native of France who spent 11 years as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, stopped short of confirming that.

“It’s going to be up to the horse and Flavien,” Brisset said on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. “I’m not going to change anything with what I usually do, so play the break and go from there. We are not of one dimension. If he’s the one who broke on top, he can go for it. If he needs to sit, he can sit. He can do whatever.”

Which brought Brisset back to the stretch in distance. Mullikin led at every call in two of his wins this year and never was more than a half-length behind in the other two. He ran those races like he was a reliable and expensive watch. The first quarter-miles went in 22.46-22.89 and the first halves in 44.87-45.56 seconds.

Then at Del Mar last month, Federal Judge blazed early fractions of 21.74 and 44.12 seconds. Mullikin was as far as 4 3/4 lengths behind. The eventual winner Straight No Chaser lurked the whole way and never retreated enough to make Mullikin a threat to finish first.

Applying that experience that to Saturday’s pace picture and adding a quarter-mile, Brisset said, “Obviously coming off of a six-furlong race, you cannot expect him to be up there, but you never know. That’s not my job. My job is to bring him up there in the best shape possible. From there it’s up to the horse and Flav.”

Having the 3-1 favorite lose in the Breeders’ Cup was disappointing to bettors who backed Mullikin, but Brisset spoke of it being a positive experience.

“You’re still running third in the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “It’s a championship, and you’re running against the best of the best, so nothing wrong about running third in that race. Maybe a little surprised we were a little further back than what I was expecting, even more with the way he broke. But that’s the way it set up.”

Mullikin experienced something last month he had not seen when he was going forward in his previous starts this year and maybe not since his February 2023 debut. That was dirt flying in his face after breaking unhurriedly from post 10.

“Maybe he didn’t travel as usual when he got the kickback for an eighth of a mile,” Brisset said. “He got maybe a length or two further (behind) than expected. From there you’ve got to have everything go right. ... One thing goes just a little bit sideways, and you can lose the race.”

It that sense, the Breeders’ Cup was a tale of two races for Mullikin. The second half showed he would not back down from a fight. It also showed he can pick up speed in the stretch whether he is leading or trailing, a quality that may translate productively when he stretches to a mile.

“At the quarter pole, when (Prat) took him wide and made the run, it’s not like he backed up and finished sixth, beat by 10,” Brisset said. “He came on running, and he galloped out strong.”

Brisset acknowledged the rigors of the cross-country trip and the five-week turnaround from the pinnacle of challenges to a longer distance for Mullikin, who is 10: 5-3-1 with $853,612 in earnings.

“It’s a lot to ask of a horse,” he said, “but at the same time, if we didn’t think he can do it, we won’t be here.”

Brisset also brought maiden winner Liam in the Dust, a 2-year-old Liam’s Map filly who will try again to upset 2-for-2 Muhimma. They meet Saturday in the Demoiselle (G2), a 1 1/8-mile points prep for the May 2 Kentucky Oaks (G1). When they faced off last month in a Churchill Downs allowance race, Liam in the Dust finished second, 5 1/2 lengths behind Muhimma.

“We’ve never been scared of one horse,” Brisset said.

The Cigar Mile card will be a guide to 2025 not only for Liam in the Dust but also Mullikin, who is ticketed to race at age 5. One big challenge will be how to divide assignments between the potential Eclipse Award finalist and a Grade 2-winning 3-year-old colt by Gun Runner who is back home in Versailles, Ky.

“We have World Record, who is a pretty nice sprinter,” Brisset said. “He can come back next year as a 4-year-old, and we could keep them apart. That would be a good thing.”

In other words, if Mullikin were to win the Cigar Mile, then he might stay at longer distances. Likewise, Brisset wants to figure out whether Liam in the Dust will measure up to her stablemate Impulse Buy, a 2-year-old Speightstown filly who won the black-type Fern Creek Stakes last Saturday at Churchill Downs.

“It’s the time you want to try to find out where to go,” Brisset said. As he put it about the never-ending challenges for rising stars, “Our business is a snowball. If you stop the snowball on the top of the mountain, it’s not going to grow. By August, the two focuses we have are to try to make the Breeders’ Cup and already focus for the following year.”

That snowball might not last in August heat, but it looks ready to roll this weekend in the frost of New York.