Connect, Anchor Down likely for Cigar Mile

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Connect, the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby winner, and Anchor Down, the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap winner, head the list of probable starters for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 26.

Connect’s trainer, Chad Brown, said he could run three horses in the Cigar Mile. Economic Model, second to Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Drefong in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga, is scheduled to run. Threefiveindia, second in the Bold Ruler, is also possible, Brown said. It is also possible Threefiveindia will train up to the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, Brown added.

Connect, Economic Model, and Threefiveindia are all 3-year-olds. In fact, seven of the 15 Cigar Mile nominees are 3-year-olds.

The Cigar Mile carries a guaranteed purse of $500,000. There are provisions in the race conditions that any Grade 1 winner would run for the winner’s share of $750,000, while any Breeders’ Cup winner would run for the winner’s share of $1 million. There were no winners of a Grade 1 or Breeders’ Cup race nominated to this year’s Cigar Mile.

Divining Rod, Ocean Knight, and Tommy Macho are the only other graded stakes winners nominated. Recent allowance winners Realm and Tale of S’avall, both trained by Barclay Tagg, have been nominated. Also nominated are Voluntario and Summer Revolution, who ran one-two in a Nov. 4 allowance race for trainer Rudy Rodriguez.

War Story and Win the Space, the eighth- and ninth-place finishers from this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, were nominated to the Cigar Mile. Dannie’s Deceiver and Mylute round out the list of nominees.