Cigar Mile at Aqueduct 2024

Named for the brilliant Cigar, a horse who in the 90’s won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the fastest time ever and the Dubai World Cup among other things, the Cigar Mile is a top Grade I race at Aqueduct run in December on the dirt track.

Carrying a prize fund of around $750,000 and with all those aged three and over eligible, the Cigar Mile is one of the key races on the North American schedule.

While it now immortalises Cigar, the race has been on the calendar since 1988 when it was known as the NYRA Mile (New York Racing Association) and it is staged as a handicap, making it more difficult even for the best horses around to win it.

Past winners include such greats as Congaree (twice), Discreet Cat, Flat Out, Tonalist, Connect and Maximum Security who was famous for being the ‘first past the post’ winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2019 before being disqualified.