To Honor and Serve to go in as a real threat to the field in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct
The centerpiece of the Big A’s HolidayFest, the 21st running of the Grade 1 $250,000 Cigar Mile will host seven horses from different parts of the country to give it a areal go in one of the most significant events on the North American racing
calendar.
The $250,000 Cigar Mile will be held at Aqueduct race track over a distance of a mile on dirt, for horses aged 3-year-old and above.
The solid favourite to the win the Cigar Mile is the 3-year-old Bill Mott trained To Honor and Serve. Despite coming off a seventh place finish in his last outing which was none other than in the Grade 1, $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at about 1 ¼ miles,
To Honor and Serve has two placed finishes in the early part of the season, bouncing back from an unplaced finish in the Grade 2 Amsterdam to win back ti back prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Originally called the NYRA Mile, the race was renamed in 1997 to Cigar Mile in owner of Cigar who picked up a win in the Cigar Mile back in 1994 on way to his first of the two Horse of the Year titles, and he was trained Bill Mott, the Hall of Fame trainer.
Bill Mott also trains To Honor and Serve, and the veteran trainer hasn’t won the Cigar Mile since it was renamed, but now he has a great opportunity to undo the years that have gone past to miss out on a race which was named after a special horse he trained.
“It would be a great honor to win a race named after such a great horse,” said Mott. “It was an honor when they decided to rename it after Cigar as it was an important part of his winning streak.”
The son of Bernardini, out of mare Pilfer by Deputy Minister, To Honor and Serve was on fire last year at Aqueduct where he landed Grade 2 Nashua at a mile and then immediately bagged the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes.
All the winnings at the Big A gives him edge over the rest of the field, especially winning over a mile and the over 1 1/8th over there are performances really hard to ignore.
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