It appears the New York jockey colony and NYRA have, at least for the moment, reached an accord as racing resumed at Aqueduct Park on Thursday.
Saturday at Aqueduct brings us the 2025 edition of the $500,000, Grade 2 Cigar Mile Handicap.
Held around one turn, the Cigar Mile has long been an important race in the dirt mile division since its inaugural running in 1988 when it was called the NYRA Mile Handicap.
Here is a brief look at the field for Saturday’s contest:
1. DOC SULLIVAN [ML 5-1] Jockey: Ricardo Santana Jr. Trainer: John Ortiz. Has been in the money in 14 of his 19 lifetime starts and has held his own in prior Graded Stakes efforts. Regular jockey Joel Rosario jumps ship to pilot rival PHILEAS FOGG in this one and that certainly can’t be considered a positive factor. Past performances indicate that DOC SULLIVAN performs best on wet surfaces. Sunny skies are in the Aqueduct forecast on Saturday.
2. MIKA [ML 12-1] Jockey: Manny Franco. Trainer: Mike Maker. The lone 3-year-old in the field enters this race in career-best form coming off back-to-back wins at Delaware and Laural Park by a combined margin of 23 ½ lengths. MIKA has been extremely impressive in his two-race winning streak going two turns and his speed figure leaped into competitive stakes race territory last time out, but he’ll be facing some quality Stakes horses and proven one-turn specialists.
3. PENTATHLON [ML 10-1] Jockey: Junior Alvarado. Trainer: Shug McGaughey. Earned his career-best Speed Figure last time out in a good-looking, 3 ¼-length win at this track and distance in an Allowance-optional Claiming race. So, his connections feel strong enough to take a shot against high caliber company in this spot. His best races have come at one mile, and his best speed figures aren’t too far off what the race favorites typically run.
4. CRAZY MASON [ML 7-2] Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr. Trainer: Gregory Sacco. Won this year’s Grade 2 Carter Stakes going seven furlongs on this track and has put together a solid 2025 campaign, yet he remains mostly overlooked despite good credentials. Perhaps his lack of strong Speed Figures is why his form doesn’t garner a ton of respect. Ortiz picks up the mount and will try to add a career-first Cigar Mile victory to his trophy cabinet.
5. BRAZENLY [ML 30-1] Jockey: John Velazquez. Trainer: Chris Englehart. Englehart is this horse’s third different trainer this year. BRAZENLY has been solid but not spectacular in his most recent races, which were 3rd-place finishes at the Del Mar and Belmont at the Big A meets, and this race represents a serious jump in class for this veteran of 39 career starts who has yet to compete in a Graded Stakes race. On the plus side, Johnny V picks up the mount.
6. PHILEAS FOGG [ML 9-5] Jockey: Joel Rosario. Trainer: Gustavo Rodriguez. He comes into this race on a streak of nine straight in-the-money finishes. The big question for PHILEAS FOGG will be this one-mile distance. After all, he has run well earlier in his career at a mile, but this year has been strictly a two-turn horse going long. This fact is clearly not lost on his connections, who add blinkers and Joel Rosario to his arsenal to gear up for this race.
7. BISHOPS BAY [ML 2-1] Jockey: Flavien Prat. Trainer: Brad Cox. Winner of five of his last six races with the three most recent wins all coming at this one-mile distance. Trainer Brad Cox, seemingly, wins wherever he goes and rider Flavien Prat has been the dominant jockey at the current Aqueduct meet, so BISHOPS BAY has top-notch connections in his favor. He looms one of the top three contenders in this year’s Cigar Mile.
The Cigar Mile is slated as race as race 10 on an 11-race card with a scheduled Post Time of 3:40.
Best of luck however you play it.
