Cigar Mile - Brisnet

Last updated: 11/26/05 6:07 PM

Purge concluded his career in style on Saturday
(Uli Seit/Horsephotos.com)

Starlight Stables et al’s PURGE (Pulpit) made up for what had been a forgettable
four-year-old campaign so far in Saturday’s $350,000
Cigar Mile H. (G1),
rallying into contention at the top of the stretch and powering past Mass Media
(Touch Gold) to win going away by 3 3/4 lengths. With new rider Garrett Gomez
aboard,
the bay colt lit up Aqueduct’s tote board at 25-1, paying $53, $21.80 and
$18.40, and he capped a tremendous Holiday Weekend for conditioner Todd Pletcher,
who also compiled victories in the Clark H. (G2), Remsen S. (G2), and Falls City
H. (G2) while adding the single-season earnings record to his resume.

Purge came on at three when winning the Peter Pan S. (G2) and Jim Dandy S.
(G2), but he finished a non-threatening sixth in last year’s Cigar and had
dropped six straight starts against stakes rivals prior to Saturday. He turned
things around in grand style, rating comfortably in ninth during the early
stages while stablemate Value Plus (Unbridled’s Song) established a solid pace
in :22 3/5, :45 and 1:09, with Badge of Silver (Silver Deputy) and Mass Media
providing pressure. The eventual winner advanced along the inside on the far
turn and split horses approaching the stretch, but he still had to catch Mass
Media, who had gradually put away Value Plus to assume a clear lead passing the
eighth pole.

“I turned for home, gave him some daylight and he started picking them up,”
Gomez said. “He went into overdrive.”

Purge caught Mass Media and quickly drew clear in deep stretch, finishing
eight furlongs over the fast track in 1:34 1/5.

“He acted like he had been doing that all his life, sitting there like an old
come-from-behind sprinter,” Gomez added.

Mass Media, off at nearly 10-1, paid $10.40 and $9.70 after
withstanding the late run of Gygistar (Prospector’s Music), who was the only
other runner to make any kind of impact but fell three parts of a length short
of second at 7-1. Show was good for $6.50. The exotics returned $628 (exacta),
$4,803 (trifecta) and $29,730 for the 7-8-9-10 superfecta that included fourth-placer Silver Wagon (Wagon Limit).

Next across the finish line came Value Plus, Scrappy T (Fit to Fight),
Bailero (Arg) (Roy), Badge of Silver, Host (Chi) (Hussonet), Imperialism (Langfuhr)
and Straight Line (Boundary).

Bred in Kentucky by Glory Days Breeding Inc., Purge brought $180,000 as a
2002 Keeneland September yearling and has now earned $905,434 from a 15-6-1-2
mark. The Cigar Mile is his third stakes win, and he’s placed in a trio of
black-type events, including the Meadowlands Breeders’ Cup (G2) and Philip H.
Iselin Breeders’ Cup H. (G3) this year. The first registered foal out of the
multiple stakes-winning Copelan’s Bid Gal (Copelan), Purge has an unraced
juvenile brother named Hooper (Forestry) and a weanling full sister.

Purge went out a winner in his final career start and will enter stud next
year at Vinery near Lexington, Kentucky. Mass Media will also retire off this
race and is headed to Hill ‘n’ Dale near Lexington.