Dubai: Godolphin handler Saeed Bin Surour on Thursday led the tributes to legendary American racehorse and inaugural Dubai World Cup winner Cigar, who died on Wednesday at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, US.
A record-tying winner of 16 straight races and 11 Grade or Group 1s, Cigar succumbed to complications following surgery for severe osteoarthritis in his neck. He was 24 years old.
Bin Surour, who was an integral part of the racing history that was made at Nad Al Sheba racecourse on March 27, 1996, with the launch of the world’s richest race, said he remembers the inaugural World Cup as if it only happened yesterday.
“I was not aware that he was ill, but it is very sad news. He was a true champion,” Bin Surour told Gulf News.
“He ran a huge race to win at Nad Al Sheba, considering the challenge that was thrown at him by Soul Of The Matter, another top horse. It was an honour to have run against him, because my horses were beaten by a great champion.”
Bin Surour pitched four runners against Cigar in the then 1,800m contest on dirt, with Tamayaz finishing fifth, Torrential eighth, Larrocha ninth and Halling 10th.
The Emirati handler, who would go on to win six Dubai World Cups, including the 2014 race with African Story, believes that Cigar helped put UAE racing on the world map by illustrating what Dubai had to offer the racing fraternity.
Meanwhile, retired Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who partnered Cigar to his 16 consecutive wins, recalled riding him to score a momentous victory in the Dubai World Cup.
“I had no idea what to expect going in, I don’t know if anybody did,” he told The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. “Even watching the rerun, it looks like Soul Of The Matter is going to run right by him. But I was never concerned at that moment because I could feel Cigar starting to get his motor revved up again.
“But I could also look at the wire and tell how much distance we had to travel and I could feel Cigar moving again.
“But he kind of waited on horses. And I was never worried that he wasn’t going to accelerate and draw back off again. And that’s who he was, what he did.
“I’m blessed that I was the one picked to ride him. I don’t know why, but I’m glad I was.”
At the time of his retirement to stud at the end of the 1996 racing season, Cigar had won 19 out of 33 starts with earnings of $9,999,815 (Dh36,732,219), a record at that time. He was voted Champion Older Male and Horse of the Year in both 1995 and in 1996.
He was also the first horse to tie racing legend Citation’s record of 16 consecutive wins, but narrowly failed in his bid to surpass it when he was beaten in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar in 1996.
Kathy Hopkins, director of equine operations for the Kentucky Horse Park, said Cigar will be remembered as one of the greatest horses the world has ever seen.
“The Kentucky Horse Park was committed to providing him with the highest level of care possible,” said Hopkins in a press release. “We are heart-broken to lose this great horse, especially as we were trying to do everything we could to improve his quality of life and make him more sound and comfortable.”
Dr Steve Reed, who was part of the team that pioneered the special procedure performed, added: “The outcome was disappointing and very sad for many people.”
Like the other Hall of Champions horses who died in retirement at the park, Cigar will be buried on the Memorial Walk of Champions near thoroughbreds Alysheba, Bold Forbes, Forego, John Henry and Kona Gold.
