Cigar Mile Marks Dirt Debut for Mshawish

The horse who ran fourth in the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) will get a chance to run that same distance on dirt in the Cigar Mile (gr. I) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Bradley Weisbord, advisor to Al Shaqab Racing, said 5-year-old Mshawish will make his dirt debut at the highest level Nov. 28 after 19 turf starts and one synthetic surface outing in his 20-race career.

"We'd been trying to run him on dirt since last winter," Weisbord said of the Todd Pletcher trainee. "We made a plan to run him in the Dubai Turf (UAE-IT), so we couldn't run him on dirt then. When we came back our goal was the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) with the idea of trying the Forego (gr. I) between as a prep, but he popped a foot bruise a week before the race in New York and had to go to the Mile off no prep, not being able to try dirt.

"If Liam's Map wasn't his stablemate in the barn, we might have even run him in the Dirt Mile (gr. I), that's how confident we were that he'd like the dirt. But because (eventual Dirt Mile winner) Liam's Map was in the race, we decided to head to what turned out to be an even more competitive race in the Breeders' Cup Mile."

Mshawish is a Medaglia d'Oro   runner who earlier this season won the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (gr. IT) and Fort Lauderdale Stakes (gr. IIT) and finished third in the Dubai Turf. He began his career in France and was placed with Pletcher after his connections sent him to the U.S. in 2014.

"This has really been in the plans for pretty much a full year and for one circumstance or another, we haven't had the chance to do it," Weisbord explained. "Now that he came out of  Breeders' Cup Mile in great shape, it's a good opportunity to try dirt in New York running out of his own stall."

With a 6-2-3 record from those 20 starts for earnings of $1,790,151, Mshawish is expected to continue racing in 2016 for Al Shaqab.

"We've gotten some stud offers for the horse, but we don't feel they've been aggressive enough," Weisbord said. "He'll probably make more on the track this coming year; he's made a million and change and he's only a few different results away from $2 million. We think he's set on a good 2016."

Mshawish was bred in Kentucky by OTIF 2007 out of the Thunder Gulch mare Thunder Bayou. He went through the auction ring three times, including at the Arqana Saint-Cloud May 2-year-old breeze up sale in 2012, where he was a $219,589 purchase by Mandore International Agency for Al Shaqab.

"He's as good of a training horse on the dirt as I've ever witnessed, including (2011 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) winner) Animal Kingdom   and (2012 Arkansas Derby (gr. I) winner) Bodemeister  ," Weisbord said. "He floated on his own in solo moves every week at Palm Beach Downs this winter, and if you watched him train on the dirt you'd never even run him on the grass. What he's going to do at the quarter pole (in the Cigar Mile), I don't know, but as far as half-mile and five-eighths works on the dirt go, he's really strong."

The most recent recorded work for Mshawish was was a four-furlong move breezing in :50.10 over the Belmont Park training track Nov. 14. He prepped for his Breeders' Cup Mile run with one turf work and two dirt moves at Keeneland leading up to the World Championships.

"A lot of times grass horses will look good at the quarter pole and spit the bit when it's time to start running, but the horse trains tremendous on dirt," Weisbord said. "He's out of a Thunder Gulch mare and by Medaglia d'Oro  , whose progeny run well on both surfaces, and I really have no concerns he's not going to handle the dirt. Will he be grade I quality against the likes of Private Zone and Tonalist? I don't know yet."

There's a chance Mshawish could contest the $10 million Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) or return in the Dubai Turf if he runs well in the Cigar Mile.

"I would say if he ran well on the dirt, we'd highly consider the Dubai World Cup and Dubai Turf," Weisbord said. "I think he's a nine-furlong horse ideally ... I don't necessarily think he's a miler or a mile-and-a-quarter horse, but for $10 million we might have to find out."