Cigar Street possible for BC Classic; Departing likely to Fayette

Cigar Street and Departing (yellow silks) could be parting ways (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography)

After Cigar Street’s impressive 1 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s $135,500 Homecoming
Classic at
Churchill Downs, Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott was not ready to rule out the $5
million Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 1 as the next start for Jake Ballis and Rashard
Lewis’ colorbearer.

“We certainly had the Breeders’ Cup Classic on our mind,” Mott said. “But
Saturday wasn’t a ‘Win and You’re In’ race. So we’ll sit down and talk to the
connections and see what our next move will be but I wouldn’t rule the Classic
out at this point.”

Mott seemed satisfied with Cigar Street’s performance in a phone call from New
York on Sunday morning.

“He ran a great race,” Mott said. “That was his second start back and we
obviously didn’t think he was ready to go to the Jockey Club Gold Cup, so we
really weren’t sure what he would do going into Saturday. But we were impressed
with his performance and I think he’s moving forward like we had hoped.”

Mott’s longtime assistant at Churchill Downs, Kenny McCarthy, confirmed the
five-year-old son of Street Sense exited the Homecoming Classic in good form.

“He came out great,” McCarthy said. “We couldn’t be happier with yesterday’s
performance. He walked the shedrow this morning and he’s due to ship back to New
York on Wednesday, October 1.”

Cigar Street’s dam, Arcadiana, is a half-sister to the legendary Cigar, a member
of Racing’s Hall of Fame who won the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Classic also for Mott.