From Cigar to Chrome: An American Superstar in Dubai

Since its inception in 1996, the Dubai World Cup has drawn some of the top dirt horses in the U.S., including Cigar (right) for the inaugural edition and California Chrome (left) for this year's main event. (California Chrome image by Eclipse Sportswire; Cigar image by Horsephotos.com)
Saturday is the 20th running of the richest horse race in the world, the Dubai World Cup, and there are two horses entered in the race from the United States.
California Chrome, our reigning Kentucky Derby and Horse of the Year winner, will be racing for a share of the $10-million purse and another notch in his legacy. The other American horse, Lea, won the Donn Handicap last year. Lea’s trainer, Bill Mott, is no stranger to Dubai. Mott shipped another horse to the desert to run in this race — the first-ever running of the Dubai World Cup, in fact. That horse ended up winning the inaugural Dubai World Cup 20 years ago. His name was Cigar.
CIGAR: LEGENDS FEATURE

In 1996, when Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, came up with the idea to host the richest day in the sport of horse racing, he knew the $4-million purse, an incredible amount of money, wouldn’t make a bit of difference if Cigar wasn’t in the race.
If the Dubai World Cup truly was going to be a contest of world champions, they’d need to face Cigar, who was coming off of 12 consecutive victories including a perfect 10-for-10 season as a 5-year-old. His last victory came in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Like California Chrome, Cigar had just been crowned Horse of the Year.
Cigar hadn’t always been considered a “super horse.” He didn’t race at two, and his 3-year-old season only saw two wins in nine starts. He was considered a decent high-level allowance racehorse. But when Cigar turned four, he was transferred to trainer Bill Mott, who gave the horse some time off and plotted a new strategy for the son on Palace Music out of a Seattle Slew mare. Mott took Cigar to New York, where the horse ran third in a pair of allowance races at Belmont and Saratoga in his first four starts for Mott. But in October, Cigar won an allowance race at Aqueduct by eight lengths and started a winning streak that would capture the attention of the entire world.
Mott clearly knew what was best for Cigar, which is why the horse’s owners, the Paulson family, must have trusted him when he wanted to run the horse in the new race in Dubai. It wasn’t an easy choice. In 1996, not many people knew anything about Dubai at all. And in horse racing, it was a common bit of wisdom that horses rarely, if ever, ran at top form when shipped overseas. When they shipped back they often fared even worse. The American racing public wanted Mott and the Paulsons to keep Cigar here and not enter the new race in the strange, desert nation.
A number of American racetracks put their heads, and their pocketbooks, together to try to come up with a race with a comparable purse to lure the horse to stay. They even approached MGM for help. In the end, the efforts were for naught.
Mott and the Paulsons put Cigar on a plane and took off for Dubai.
The gamble worked for both Cigar and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. Cigar won a thrilling and close race. Jockey Jerry Bailey says the race was the single greatest moment of his life.
CIGAR WINNING 1996 DUBAI WORLD CUP

Photo by Dubai Racing Club
It was Cigar’s first start at night and his first time racing without Lasix, yet he ran at top form against top-tier competition that included American horse L’Carriere, who had finished second to Cigar in the Breeders Cup Classic. The Dubai World Cup also put Dubai on the map as an epicenter of international horse racing, not to mention a nation of wealth and excess. The Dubai World Cup was the culmination of a three-week festival, and the Americans in attendance were shocked at the level of hospitality made available to them during their stay.
Cigar would return home in fine form and win his next four races before being upset in the Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar in front of 40,000 fans. He nearly won $10-million and was named Racehorse of the Decade for the 1990s.
The Dubai World Cup has grown over the years since Cigar won. It is now worth $10-million and, as evidenced by the entry of California Chrome, is still a draw for top talent from the United States.
The Dubai World Cup had experienced a bit of a drop in interest from top American dirt horses after the decision to run the race on a synthetic surface. This year, the racetrack switched back to dirt.
California Chrome, should he win Saturday, will be only the third Kentucky Derby winner to win the Dubai World Cup. The other two were Silver Charm in 1998 and Animal Kingdom in 2013, a year when the race was run on a synthetic surface.
2014 KENTUCKY DERBY VICTOR CALIFORNIA CHROME

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Chrome currently is the 7-to-4 favorite. A victory on Saturday could be big for the Dubai World Cup in that it would likely attract more Triple Crown competitors with the switch back to dirt. A victory could be big for California Chrome as well. It could kick-start a 4-year-old season for the American champion after a runner-up finish in his season debut. His connections have shown an admirable willingness to keep the horse in competition and face off with top competitors.
Could he have the kind of second act that Cigar did? Perhaps. But even if he never wins another race after Saturday, he can rest well. There’s a saying in Dubai: Al Darahim Marahim. It means “money is like an ointment. It takes pain and problems away.”