Cigar Won’t Defend Title in Gold Cup

Owner Allen Paulson and trainer Bill Mott will have a starter in the $1-million Hollywood Gold Cup on June 30.

It won’t be the horse the track was basically banking its meeting upon.

Mott made the inevitable official this week, letting Hollywood Park officials know Cigar won’t defend his Gold Cup title.

Rather, Mott and Paulson will be represented by Geri, who had six consecutive victories before finishing third in a field of four in the slop in the Pimlico Special. Geri, a son of Theatrical, began his career in California, where he was trained by Bill Shoemaker.

A winner of 15 in a row, Cigar hasn’t returned to training since a bruise on his right front heel was discovered after his pummeling of an empty field in the Massachusetts Handicap on June 1.

“The injury’s healing, and I’m sorry for the people at Hollywood Park that he won’t make the race, but he’s missed too much time,” Mott said.

“We’re running out of time now. We haven’t had him back on the track. You’ve got to have a certain rhythm, and we don’t have that going for us right now. We feel he’s doing better, but he’s progressing slower than we hoped.

“He will be back. It’s one of those things, he’ll be fine. But you’re delaying your training schedule and you can’t have too many delays when you’re going for this type of race. For every day you lose, it takes two days to make it up.”

A bruise in the same foot kept the 6-year-old out of the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap in March, but skeptics wonder if the problem is the real reason he’s not coming to Inglewood.

Mott apparently wasn’t eager to ship to California and concede weight to Soul Of The Matter, who gave Cigar a serious scare at equal weights in the Dubai World Cup on March 27. Cigar carried 130 pounds in the Massachusetts Handicap and it was widely thought he would pick up one pound for the Gold Cup.

Whatever, his absence is a serious blow to Hollywood Park, whose on-track attendance is down from last year. The track had geared most of its promotion hyping the coming of 1995’s horse of the year. There was a video commercial showing highlights of Cigar’s win streak that patrons at Hollywood Park--and its various satellites--couldn’t miss.

The next stop for Cigar, who will be trying to equal Citation’s streak of 16 consecutive victories, could be Arlington International’s proposed $1-million race, which probably will be run on the weekend of July 13-14 under allowance conditions. After that, the best horse of this decade would probably go on to the $1-million Pacific Classic on Aug. 10 at Del Mar, another race that is weight-for-age.

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Jockey Gary Stevens underwent two hours of shoulder surgery Wednesday at Centinela Hospital Medical Center. Dr. James Tibone repaired the rotator cuff and tended to some ligament damage in Stevens’ left shoulder, according to Ron Anderson, the rider’s agent.

Stevens, who will be sidelined three to six months, is expected to leave the hospital today.

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Favored Starry Ice won for the third time in as many starts, taking the $61,200 Cinderella on Wednesday at Hollywood Park.