Cigar Mile leaves behind rich legacy at the Big A
At 1h14, on December 6, 2025 • By Aqueduct Racetrack
Saturday will mark the final time a trio of Aqueduct Racetrack’s most storied races are held at the Big A. The Cigar Mile, Demoiselle, and Remsen – each currently a Grade 2 event – have provided many iconic moments during their respective histories.
With Aqueduct scheduled to close following the completion of the new Belmont Park, these races will be transferred to Belmont to open a new chapter for New York racing. The Aqueduct editions of these celebrated contests, meanwhile, will live on in memory and the record books.
Saturday’s card features six stakes worth a combined $2.25 million in total purse money topped by the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap for 3-year-olds and upward in Race 10.
The lucrative program co-features the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen [Race 9] for 2-year-olds going nine furlongs as well as the nine-furlong Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle [Race 3] for juvenile fillies. Also slated for the card is the Grade 3, $250,000 Elite Power [Race 5] at six furlongs for 3-years-old and up which was previously offered as the Runhappy during the Belmont at the Big A spring meet. The stacked lineup showcases the New York Stallion Stakes Series with a pair of $500,000 stakes at seven furlongs for juveniles that will see eligible New York-sired fillies contest the NYSSS Fifth Avenue [Race 8] at seven furlongs, alongside the NYSSS Great White Way [Race 11]. First post on Saturday’s 11-race card is 11:20 a.m. Eastern.
Cigar Mile
Inaugurated in 1988 as the NYRA Mile Handicap, the race’s first winner was Champion Forty Niner, a Claiborne Farm homebred trained by Hall of Famer Woody Stephens. The NYRA Mile was given Grade 1 status in 1990, and the sixth edition in 1994 was won by the mighty Cigar, who defeated Devil His Due by seven lengths for eventual Hall of Fame connections with Jerry Bailey in the irons for trainer Bill Mott. Few could have imagined at the time that the NYRA Mile would be the second of a remarkable 16 consecutive victories by Cigar, who until that point had only three wins in 14 starts. Following the legendary Maryland-bred’s retirement, the NYRA Mile was renamed the Cigar Mile prior to the 1997 running.
Other standouts to win the Cigar Mile include Champion Left Bank [2001]; back-to-back winner Congaree [2002, 2003]; Discreet Cat, who set the stakes record of 1:32.46 in 2006; Champion Kodiak Kowboy [2009]; Flat Out [2013], who also won multiple editions of the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Suburban Handicap on the NYRA circuit; Tonalist [2015], who also won the Belmont Stakes and two editions of the Jockey Club Gold Cup; and Champion Maximum Security [2019]. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has saddled a record seven winners of the Cigar Mile while Bailey and fellow Hall of Famer John Velazquez share top billing among the jockeys with five wins each in the race.
