Rail draw limits Anchor Down's options in Cigar Mile

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Anchor Down has plenty of early speed, his connections haven’t liked it when he’s drawn the rail post position. Anchor Down is winless in three starts breaking from the rail, and back in July he was scratched from the Grade 3, $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship after drawing the inside post.

Naturally, trainer Todd Pletcher was not thrilled to learn Wednesday that Anchor Down drew the rail in a field of 10 entered for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.

However, Anchor Down enters the Cigar Mile in career-best form, and at the very least, Pletcher won’t have much to discuss in the way of strategy with jockey Jose Ortiz.

“As he’s matured and become more experienced, it’s become less an issue,” Pletcher said Wednesday. “He’s become more comfortable in his breezes on the inside and in general a little more professional. It’ll eliminate any race strategy.”

The Cigar Mile will go as the last of 10 races on Saturday’s card, which begins at 11:50 a.m. Eastern.

Anchor Down, a 5-year-old son of Tapit owned by Alto Racing, is coming off a two-length victory in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park on Oct. 8. The horse he defeated that day, Tamarkuz, came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

The Dirt Mile was never really on Anchor Down’s radar as his forte has become a one-turn mile and the Breeders’ Cup was run around two turns. In addition to the Kelso, Anchor Down won the Grade 3 Westchester, a one-turn mile at Belmont in May. Anchor Down finished second in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap to Frosted, who set a stakes record in that race for time and margin of victory.

“The one-turn mile is kind of his thing,” Pletcher said. “He’s put forth some big races doing that. It’s a combination of him kind of figuring it out and us kind of figuring him out.”

Anchor Down is the only multiple graded stakes winner in the Cigar Mile field. His major competition figures to come from the 3-year-olds in the field, led by Connect, the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby winner, and Economic Model, the Easy Goer Stakes winner.

On the same Belmont Stakes Day card that Economic Model won the Easy Goer, Connect won a first-level allowance race by 3 3/4 lengths. Trained by Chad Brown, Connect went on to win the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx. In between, he finished sixth behind Arrogate in the Travers and came out of that race with a lung infection.

Connect, in with 118 pounds, drew post 7 in the Cigar Mile. Economic Model (116) drew post 2, while Threefiveindia, another 3-year-old trained by Brown, drew post 9.

Completing the Cigar Mile field are Realm, Ocean Knight, Tale of S’avall, War Story, Mylute, and Divining Rod.