Cigar went out a loser on the track, but a winner in the eyes of his owner, the trainer who beat him - and just about everyone else.
"It's been a great run," owner Allen Paulson said after Cigar finished third in the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday at Woodbine. "It's probably time to go home with him. He's one of the greatest ever."Cigar lost by less than a half-length as he finished third behind Alphabet Soup and Louis Quatorze - his third loss in 20 races. Those three defeats, however, came in his last four races.
"He's a good horse," trainer David Hofmans said of the 5-year-old Alphabet Soup. "He was a great horse today, and he beat the greatest horse."
The 6-year-old Cigar, seeking his second win in the Classic, was cheered as loudly in defeat as he had been when he had entered the track.
"It was a great thrill," said winning jockey Chris McCarron, "but taking something away from Cigar doesn't sit well."
"To do what he did this year - he's still a champion," said Jerry Bailey, Cigar's jockey.
Cigar raced a total of eight times at seven tracks in three countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
"If there's a chink in his armor, it's he's run all year long," Hofmans said. "My horse was fresh."
Alphabet Soup, winning for the fourth time in seven starts this year, was never worse than third. He took the lead inside the eighth pole and got to the wire a nose ahead of 3-year-old Louis Quatorze, with Cigar another head back.
Cigar, fifth with a quarter-mile left, entered the stretch four wide and just couldn't make up enough ground.
Alphabet Soup ($41.70), raced the 11/4 miles under 126 in a track-record 2:01 and earned $2,080,000.
Another fan favorite was Ricks Natural Star, the cheap claimer who hadn't raced since Aug. 25, 1995. He made his stakes and grass debuts in the $2 million Turf, won by Europe-based Pilsudski, the second-place finisher in the Arc de Triomphe.
Ricks Natural Star, ridden by local apprentice Lisa McFarland, was cheered onto the track, into the gate and in the run past the stands the first time. But the loudest cheers came when the 7-year-old gelding loped through the home stretch, nearly 30 seconds behind Pilsudski.
"It was a question of whether the horse knew what kind of horses he was running against," McFarland said.