Eight Chase Grade 1 Honors in Aqueduct's Cigar Mile

The Cigar Mile Handicap Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) may be the last graded stakes of the year in New York, yet it also serves as a highly opportune time for a first.

While the outcome of the Cigar will not have a profound impact on Eclipse Award voting, it does offer some riches beyond the lion's share of the $750,000 purse. The Dec. 4 test at Aqueduct Racetrack will present six of its eight starters with a chance to secure an initial grade 1 stakes win that should substantially boost the victor's stock in the breeding shed as a stallion.

Independence Hall   and Following Sea  are most reflective of that added significance as each is grade 1-placed and owns a grade 2 win.  

While Following Sea, a 3-year-old son of Runhappy  , figures to have more chances at grade 1 laurels next year, for the 4-year-old Independence Hall, who will be headed to stud after Saturday's race, the Cigar presents one last chance to add that glittering grade 1 line to his résumé following a victory in the Oct. 30 Hagyard Fayette Stakes (G2) for trainer Michael McCarthy in his last start.

"Since the Fayette the entire ownership group and Michael have had tunnel vision over having him as good as we can for the Cigar, which is such an important stallion-making race," said Aron Wellman, founder and president of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. "To return to a one-mile distance and show the brilliance he showed in the past and win a grade 1 like the Cigar in his final start would just catapult him into a different hemisphere as far as his stallion career is concerned."

Owned by Eclipse, Robert and Kathleen Verratti, Twin Creeks Racing Stables, and WinStar Farm (where he will stand at stud), Independence Hall is exiting the most dominant performance of his 13-race career when the Constitution   colt took the Fayette at Keeneland in front-running fashion by 7 1/4 lengths on a sloppy track over fellow Cigar starter Code of Honor  . That smashing victory for the colt bred by Woodford Thoroughbreds came on the heels of a second behind likely Horse of the Year Knicks Go   in the Lukas Classic Stakes (G3).

"He's doing very well," said McCarthy about Independence Hall, who is second in the weights at 121 pounds. "He's always been a horse that has trained well and trained with a lot of purpose in the mornings. He's certainly carried that over the last few months. Its hard to knock either of his last two races. We're excited to get him to Aqueduct and see what Saturday brings."

For Spendthrift Farm's homebred Following Sea, how he handles the mile distance should be revealing. Winner of the Vosburgh Stakes (G2) two starts back, he was then third in the Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). Both races were at six furlongs.

Yet in the son of Runhappy's lone starts beyond 6 1/2 furlongs, he was third by nine lengths in the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1) and elevated to second via disqualification in the TVG.com Haskell Stakes (G1) when he was 18 1/4 lengths behind the winner.

"He's been impressive in his sprint races," trainer Todd Pletcher said, "but he's also been impressive in the way he trains. He gives us an indication that he'll run farther. This should be a good opportunity for him to open up some more options for next year."

For both Ginobili  and Code of Honor, the two of the eight who are not focused on an initial grade 1 win for breeding purposes, the Cigar holds different meaning.

For Ginobili, a 4-year-old son of Munnings   bred by Hinkle Farms, it's all about the cash because he's a gelding. Owned by Slam Dunk Racing, trainer Richard Baltas, Jerry McClanahan, and Michael Nentwig, the 122-pound highweight in the field is coming off a pair of sharp efforts in which he won the Pat O'Brien Stakes (G2) and was second to Life Is Good in the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

Will Farish's homebred Code of Honor is the lone grade 1 winner in the field through wins in the 2019 Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). The 5-year-old son of Noble Mission  has started four times in 2021 with the lone victory coming in the Philip H. Iselin Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park.

"We're looking forward to the Cigar. Since the Fayette, he's trained really well. His breezes have all been what we wanted," trainer Shug McGaughey said. "All systems seem to be go."

The Hall of Fame trainer is hoping a quicker pace than the Fayette will enable Code of Honor to return to his late-running style. The $2.9 million earner raced in second throughout in the Fayette while settling for runner-up honors behind Independence Hall.

"I think we'll get a little bit of a pace so that we can lay back farther than we did (in the Fayette) and make one run at them," McGaughey said about the winner of seven of 19 starts. "Code of Honor doesn't want to be close but we had no choice in the Fayette. If we didn't challenge Independence Hall a little bit, he would have won by 20."

Though Code of Honor, who will carry 120 pounds Saturday, is slated to begin his life as a stallion at Lane's End in 2022, there's a slim chance that a strong effort Saturday could convince the connections to extend his career by one race into the Jan. 29 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1).

"It think it will be his last race, but I can't say for sure," McGaughey said. "There could always be a thought about the Pegasus, but we haven't talked about it."

Pletcher, a four-time winner of the Cigar, will also send out China Horse Club and WinStar Farm's Americanrevolution , a 3-year-old New York-bred son of Constitution. He was third in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) in his first graded stakes try but then won the $300,000 Empire Classic Handicap for state-breds by 11 3/4 lengths last time out to improve his record to four wins in six starts.

"He's come a long way in a short period of time," Pletcher said about the colt bred by Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding. "He's had a good summer and fall and we're looking forward to this. It's a tough race and it will show us what we have."

The Cigar will be the 10th and final race on Saturday's card at the Big A, which will include three other graded stakes. Post time is slated for 4:13 p.m. EDT.

Entries: Cigar Mile H. Presented by NYRA Bets (G1)

Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, December 04, 2021, Race 10

• Grade I
• 1m
• Dirt
• $750,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 4:13 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	Following Sea (KY)	John R. Velazquez	119	Todd A. Pletcher	-
2	Plainsman (KY)	Manuel Franco	119	Brad H. Cox	-
3	Americanrevolution (NY)	Luis Saez	117	Todd A. Pletcher	-
4	Code of Honor (KY)	Tyler Gaffalione	120	Claude R. McGaughey III	-
5	Independence Hall (KY)	Javier Castellano	121	Michael W. McCarthy	-
6	Ginobili (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	122	Richard Baltas	-
7	Olympiad (KY)	Joel Rosario	114	William I. Mott	-
8	Pipeline (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	114	Chad C. Brown	-