THOROUGHBRED RACING : Bonus Smokes Cigar Out of Florida

Just in time, California’s three biggest racetracks and a Las Vegas casino have become partners in a $2-million bonus series that will lure Cigar, one of the sport’s few box-office attractions, from Florida for the Santa Anita Handicap on March 2.

Sponsors of the series said Thursday at Santa Anita that the concept, incubated early last year by the Thoroughbred Owners of California, preceded the phenomenal 1995 success of Cigar, who won all 10 of his races. That may be true, but the deal-closing impetus was furnished by Allen Paulson, the owner of Cigar, who said that his horse would have stayed in Florida if there had not been a bonus to shoot for.

The way the bonus is structured, Cigar--or any other horse--can earn $3.8 million by sweeping the Big ‘Cap, the Hollywood Gold Cup on June 30 and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on June 30. Each 1 1/4-mile race is worth $1 million, with the winner getting $600,000.

Besides the bonus for a sweep, which will be guaranteed by an insurance company the sponsors declined to identify, horses will be competing for a participation bonus of $500,000. Broken down into prizes of $250,000, $125,000, $75,000 and $50,000, the lesser bonus, to be determined by a point system, will be paid to horses that finish second through fifth if there’s a sweep, and to horses finishing first through fourth if no horse wins all three races.

Horses must run in all three races to be eligible for the $500,000 bonus and can collect points on a 10-7-5-3-1 basis if they finish in the first five in any race.

The bonus series, which will be called the MGM Grand Classic Crown, will also pay $50,000 each to the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund and the Bill Shoemaker Foundation if a jockey rides the same horse to victory in all three races.

The contract between the tracks and MGM Grand is for five years, through 2000.

Gene Kivi, vice president of racing and sports for MGM Grand, said that Cigar is an 8-1 favorite to sweep the series. Paulson’s 6-year-old, in training with Bill Mott at Gulfstream Park, worked seven furlongs in 1:29 on Wednesday and is expected to make his 1996 debut in the $300,000 Donn Handicap there on Feb. 10, a day after he’s a cinch to be named horse of the year at the Eclipse Awards dinner in Coronado.

Had the California bonus not materialized, Paulson said that Cigar would have skipped the Santa Anita Handicap and run in the $500,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap on March 2. Paulson said that after Cigar’s appearance at Santa Anita, he is still scheduled to run in the Dubai World Cup, a $4-million race, in the United Arab Emirates on March 27. Paulson was noncommittal about Cigar’s schedule after Dubai, but one of his horse’s victories last year was the Gold Cup at Hollywood Park.

The tracks, president Ed Friendly of the Thoroughbred Owners of California and MGM Grand officials have been working on the bonus proposal since last summer, but finding an insurer for the project got more difficult every time Cigar won. The organizers started with a $3-million bonus, but one cautious underwriter reportedly told them that it would cost well over $1 million to insure such an amount. Kivi declined to say Thursday how much the $2-million bonus insurance is costing.

“The premium that we’re paying won’t be any less next year if Cigar’s not running,” Kivi said. “But it would be a lot more if a horse swept this year.”

If fewer than six horses run in any of the races, the insurance company would not have to pay off the $2 million for a sweep. One of Mott’s horses, Paradise Creek, missed a $1-million bonus for sweeping three grass races in 1994 because only five horses ran in one of them.

In earning $5 million last year, Cigar raced an average of 6.9 opponents. At least six horses ran in each of his races, and three times he had to beat only five horses to win.

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Many of the horses that will challenge Cigar in the Santa Anita Handicap will be racing at the Arcadia track this weekend, in Saturday’s $300,000 San Antonio Handicap and Sunday’s $500,000 Strub Stakes.

The San Antonio, at 1 1/8 miles, drew a seven-horse field, with Dramatic Gold not running because of a fever. The high weight is Soul Of The Matter, who will carry 121 pounds in his first start since finishing fourth, 4 1/4 lengths behind Cigar, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 28.

Richard Mandella, who trains Soul Of The Matter, will also run Dare And Go, who ran for the first time in almost 10 months when he finished second in an allowance race on Jan. 5. Before he was sidelined, Dare And Go won last year’s Strub and was third in the San Fernando and the Santa Anita Handicap.

Afternoon Deelites, with Kent Desormeaux aboard, will be favored in the 1 1/4-mile Strub, which is restricted to 4-year-olds. A field of 11 is expected likely when entries are taken today. Mandella brought Afternoon Deelites back from a seven-month layoff when he won the seven-furlong Malibu on Dec. 26.

Horse Racing Notes

A state appeals court has disallowed jockey Corey Nakatani’s petition and he will complete a five-day suspension that began Thursday and runs through Wednesday. Nakatani will be able to ride Gold And Steel in the Strub, because of the California designated-race rule that applies to major stakes, but he will miss mounts on Patio De Naranjos in the San Antonio, Lit De Justice in the $200,000 Palos Verdes Handicap and Odyle in the $100,000 Santa Catalina. The Palos Verdes and the Santa Catalina will be run Sunday.