Hall of Fame thoroughbred Cigar has died at the age of 24.
A former two-time Horse of the Year, Cigar passed away after surgery at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. The stallion had been living at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Cigar was owned by Allen Paulson and trained by Bill Mott with Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey serving as his primary rider. The horse was named Horse of the Year in 1995 and 1996, as well as champion older male thoroughbred for those years, and was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2002.
The future champion began racing as a 3-year-old in 1993, but did not win his first stakes race until capturing the NYRA Mile at Aqueduct in November 1994. The stakes is now called the Cigar Mile in his honor.
Cigar had a 16-race winning streak from October 1994 through July 1996 that included victories in the first running of the Dubai World Cup in 1996, 1995 Breeders' Cup Classic, two Donn and Massachusetts Handicaps, Hollywood Gold Cup and Jockey Club Gold Cup.
The champion was retired from racing after finishing second in the 1996 Jockey Club Gold Cup and third in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He closed his Hall of Fame career with 19 wins, 15 in stakes, from 33 starts with then- record earnings of $9,999,815.
Cigar was sent to Coolmore in Versailles, Kentucky as a stallion, but he was found to be infertile and was transferred to the Kentucky Horse Park in 1999.
[SportsNetwork.com]
