Multiple Grade 1-winner Maximum Security and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile victor Spun to Run headline a talented field of 11 for the 31st running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Cigar Mile Handicap on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The lucrative Cigar Mile card, which also features the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen for 2-year-olds, the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle for 2-year-old fillies, the Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand Handicap for older fillies and mares, as well as the rescheduled $150,000 Winter Memories for sophomore fillies and the $125,000 Autumn Days for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, is the signature event of the Aqueduct fall meet.
Carded as Race 10 with a local post time of 4:16 p.m. Eastern, the Cigar Mile will anchor a mandatory payout in the Empire 6 which boasts a jackpot of $520,913 heading into Thursday’s Big A card.
Check BetRegal.net and find the best sport news.
Gary and Mary West’s multiple Grade 1-winner Maximum Security has crossed the wire first in seven of eight career starts, including Grade 1 scores in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in March and the Haskell Invitational on July 20 at Monmouth Park.
Maximum Security left the gate in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs as the 9-2 second option with regular pilot Luis Saez up, and led gate-to-wire in the first leg of the Triple Crown, but was demoted to 17th for interference approaching the five-sixteenths marker.
Last out, Maximum Security returned off a three-month layoff following his Haskell score to capture the Grade 3 Bold Ruler, a seven furlong test versus older company, at Belmont.
Trained by Jason Servis, the son of New Year’s Day breezed three furlongs in 42.20 on Sunday morning on the Belmont training track. Robert P. Donaldson’s Spun to Run, trained by Juan Carlos Guerrero, boasts a record of 5-1-3 from 11 career starts. By Hard Spun, and out of the stakes winning dam Yawkey Way, Spun to Run arrives at the Cigar Mile from a 9-1 front-running score in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on November 2 at Santa Anita Park.
Guerrero credited Irad Ortiz, Jr. for providing Spun to Run a perfect trip in the Dirt Mile as he bested a field of 10, led by multiple Grade 1-winner Omaha Beach.
