Aqueduct's Saturday card, featuring the GI Cigar Mile H. and three other graded stakes, generated all-sources handle of $13,545,188, marking an 11.8% increase over 2016's Cigar Mile Day, which was contested one week earlier. For the first time, NYRA moved the Grade 1 Cigar Mile back one week from its traditional date on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, scheduling the signature race of the Aqueduct Fall meet four weeks after the Breeders' Cup. The purse was also increased from $500,000 to $750,000.
Three Breeders' Cup competitors–Sharp Azteca (Freud; second in Dirt Mile), Mind Your Biscuits (Posse; third in Sprint) and Practical Joke (Into Mischief; third in Dirt Mile)–finished first, second and third, respectively, in Saturday's Cigar Mile. The GII Remsen S. was won by GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf fourth-place finisher Catholic Boy (More Than Ready), while GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies sixth-place finisher Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d'Oro) captured the GII Demoiselle S.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
