Disco Time eyes Cigar Mile after strong comeback win
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Disco Time has run well enough to win a Grade 1 stakes race, he just hasn’t done it yet. A sterling effort in allowance company at Belmont Park on Wednesday indicated there is still time to achieve that goal.
Disco Time returned from a five-month layoff with a front-running, 3 3/4-length victory in a conditioned allowance race that did include stakes winners Be You and My World. After brushing the side of the gate, Disco Time was able to get to the front rather easily under Manny Franco, maintain a clear advantage through a half-mile in 45.29 seconds and, with one right and one left-handed crack of Franco’s whip, come home a convincing winner.
“It was a very good effort. He ran the way he trained,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He was doing awfully well over the last month. We thought he’d run big if we found the right race. I think that was a good setup for maybe the Cigar Mile.”
Disco Time, a son of Not This Time owned by Juddmonte, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in a sharp 1:14.72, earning a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. That number was second only to the 107 Disco Time earned last fall winning the Dwyer Stakes by 9 3/4 lengths at Aqueduct.
The Dwyer was the fifth consecutive win for Disco Time to kick off his career. Things hit a roadblock when he finished eighth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup in January, second in the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, and eighth in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs on May 2.
Wednesday’s allowance was Disco Time’s first start since the Churchill Downs.
Cox won the Cigar Mile last year with Bishops Bay, a horse who is under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile but who also is being considered for the Grade 3, $200,000 Forty Niner on Nov. 1 at Belmont. Bishops Bay won last year’s Forty Niner and then the Cigar Mile.
Bishops Bay is being pointed to the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 7 in Riyadh, a race in which he finished fourth behind Forever Young last year. He could potentially run in The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup at King Abdulaziz Racetrack on Jan 8.
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