Performer can end lost season on high note in Cigar Mile

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – At this time last year, Performer was tucked away in South Florida, having completed a perfect 3-year-old campaign and with connections and observers anticipating what lay ahead for him as a 4-year-old.

Then came 2020.

His campaign first delayed by the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on racing schedules, Performer suffered an ankle injury days before he was to make his seasonal debut in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap on June 6.

Thus, Performer – who went 4 for 4 as a 3-year-old – makes just his second start of 2020 in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.

“This is a hard situation right now because he’s had one race – an allowance race – in a year, and now comes back in a Grade 1, so we’ll see on Saturday,” Shug McGaughey, the trainer of Performer, said. “He’s trained really well and his race was really good and he’s doing good. But you catch horses that have been running all the time.”

If the forecast of an inch of rain on Saturday is correct, Performer will also catch a wet racetrack, which is likely to impact field composition. Nine were entered in the Cigar Mile, but the connections of Firenze Fire and Mind Control indicated they would scratch if the track is sloppy.

Performer’s only race this year did come over a muddy Belmont main track, a race he won by 1 3/4 lengths.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” McGaughey said of a wet track.

Still, McGaughey expressed frustration that the Cigar Mile – as well as Saturday’s Remsen, Demoiselle, and Go for Wand – wasn’t run last weekend, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which had been its traditional spot on the calendar until three years ago.

“They shouldn’t be running it at this time of year, they should have run last week,” McGaughey said.

:: Get DRF Betting Strategies for Aqueduct’s Saturday card

Performer, a son of Speightstown owned by the Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm, has won races from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles. McGaughey pointed to a first-level allowance victory going 6 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga in 2019 when he rallied from ninth in an 11-horse field as his coming-out party.

“He really defined himself in the race at Saratoga when he was back,” McGaughey said.

Performer followed that with a front-running victory in another allowance at Belmont prior to his 1 1/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Discovery here on Nov. 30, 2019.

Following ankle surgery to “clean up junk,” according to McGaughey, Performer got a terrific trip under Joel Rosario and won an Oct. 17 allowance easily, covering a mile in 1:33.93.

He has had a steady training schedule since then, including a half-mile move in 48.67 seconds on Thursday at Belmont.

“I think if he’s good enough, he’ll run good,” McGaughey said.

Performer breaks from the rail under Rosario.

:: Click to learn about our DRF's Free Past Performance program.

On a dry track, Firenze Fire would be a major threat to Performer. An 11-time stakes winner, Firenze Fire is coming off a third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at six furlongs. He is a three-time winner at a mile, having won the Champagne at age 2 and the Dwyer and Jerome at 3.

Trainer Kelly Breen said he would most likely scratch Firenze Fire if the track is wet and possibly point him to the Mr. Prospector on Dec. 19 at Gulfstream. Trainer Gregg Sacco mentioned that same race as plan B for Mind Control should the track come up sloppy.

The 3-year-old King Guillermo is scheduled to make his first start since May 2 in the Cigar Mile. Owned by former Major League Baseball all-star Victor Martinez, King Guillermo became a fan favorite following his 49-1 upset in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in March. He then finished second to the highly regarded Nadal in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn.

Entered in the Kentucky Derby, rescheduled for Sept. 5, King Guillermo had to scratch after developing a fever.

Trainer Juan Avila said: “Two weeks before the Derby, he was at the top, 100 percent. Right now, he’s good, but at the Kentucky Derby he was better.”

Avila does not seem worried about a wet track, noting that at Churchill Downs King Guillermo trained over a sloppy surface “and the gallop boy said very good.”

Jose Ortiz rides King Guillermo from post 6.

Mr. Buff, dominant against New York-breds but dominated in graded stakes, takes another shot at a graded race in the Cigar Mile. He has excelled at Aqueduct, winning eight of 13 starts here including a five-length victory in the slop in the Jazil Stakes versus open company.

“I think my horse is very good right now,” trainer John Kimmel said. “I think he enjoys the cold. I don’t know where the early pace pressure is going to come from. It looks like he could maybe shake loose.”

True Timber, second in the 2018 Cigar Mile and third last year – both at 30-1 – finished third in the Grade 1 Forego in August over a wet track. He is trained by Jack Sisterson and owned by Calumet Farm, as is Bon Raison, who has the look of a longshot.

Majestic Dunhill runs back six days after finishing last in the Fall Highweight at six furlongs. Trainer George Weaver said the horse was fidgety in the gate and just went through the motions in the Fall Highweight.

Snapper Sinclair’s best races have come on turf, though he was second in the Essex Handicap in the slop at Oaklawn last March.

The Cigar Mile goes as the final race on a 10-race card that begins at 11:30 a.m. and includes a mandatory payout of the Empire 6 wager, which was hit for $482,817 last Saturday.