Cigar Mile’s caste awaits To Honor and Serve
The 3-year-old Bill Mott trained colt, To Honor and Serve, came into the Breeders’ Cup with back to back wins in hope to sweep the Classic field, but he was overwhelmed by Game on Dude’s early pace and Drosselmeyer’s roaring run down the stretch which took
him out of the race completely to finish seventh on 5 November, 2011, at Churchill Downs.
To Honor and Serve will be back in action in the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct race course on 26 November, 2011.
The Kentucky bred son of Bernardini, out of mare Pilfer by Deputy Minister, To Honor and Serve should be given credit for sticking to his task in the Breeders’ Cup Classic when he kept turning in those hard strides just to keep up with the crammed up lot
deprived of room.
The margin between success and failure was agonizingly narrow on the day, and To Honor and Serve losing just by 3 ½ lengths at the end to winner Drosselmeyer in seventh place is the proof of that little fact.
To Honor and Serve kicked off his 2011 season in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, where he managed a third place finish on the board to winner Soldat at about 1 1/8 miles.
Gulfstream Park was the same racecourse where To Honor and Serve made his next start in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, where he finished third again, but this time behind winner Dialed In and second placed Shackleford at about 1 1/8 miles.
Over at Saratoga, To Honor and Serve tried his luck in the Spa’s summer meet. His first assignment there was to run in six and a half furlong dash, Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes but the experience was a forgetful one for To Honor and Serve as he finished sixth
on the day to winner Caleb’s Posse.
To Honor and Serve finally visited the winners’ circle in his next start at Saratoga in an allowance claimer at about his favoured distance of 1 1/8 miles.
The 3-year-old colt piled another one on top of it in the shape of Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, where he managed to out finish the Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice and Rattlesnake Bridge.
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