Cigar was the best horse in the last 30 years

[cowgirlintexas]

Originally Posted by Cardus

What fans did he bring to the sport? Aside from attendance figures for the Derby, Preakness, Breeders' Cup, and opening days at Del Mar and Saratoga, where are the fans brought to the sport by Cigar?

"Brought new fans to the sport" is a throwaway line.

I'm sure there are thousands... and a few on here as well...When horses make the news and make history people notice and get involved... Point is he did a good thing for racing , was a great horse and can never be credited as "just another horse".

[Indian Charlie]

there are so many great and forgotten horses over the last 30 years, i would be hard pressed to include cigar in my top 30 over the last 30 years.

i'll start with 3. precisionist, greinton and spend a buck.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Cardus

I'm not going to carry on with this all night, but let's take a look:

I was at the Gold Cup that he lost to Skip Away. Great race. I haven't seen a crowd that size at a Gold Cup since. Where'd those fans go?

Cigar ran in the Mass Cap, too. I see that Suffolk has thrived since.

A great horse brings out fans... on the day he or she runs at the local racetrack.

I don't think that is entirely true. It took Smarty Jones to make me take note of how interesting and multifaceted the sport is...I know a few who got involved by seeing the Afleet Alex story. We all have our hook...

Top stars do have an impact.

[miraja2]

Cigar was a very good horse. But if I had to go with the best horse in the last 30 years I would go with Affirmed. I just think this horse is VERY underrated. He is typically ranked lower than Seattle Slew or The Bid, but in my opinion he should rank slightly higher than those two. He certainly ranks much higher than Cigar or Skip Away.
The reason why is the quality of competition these horses faced.
Affirmed faced more top quality horses, more often, than any other horse to run in the last 30 years, and yet he still managed 22 wins and 5 places from 29 lifetime starts. He beat Spectacular Bid. He faced horses like Seattle Slew and Exceller multiple times. Coastal and Sensitive Prince were both tremendous horses that couldn't contend with Affirmed. And then of course, Alydar. Most horses in the last thirty years have NEVER faced a horse of Alydar's quality, let alone race against him countless times as Affirmed did.
Despite facing this unbelievable competition, Affirmed was Champion 2yo, Champion 3yo, Champion Older horse, Triple Crown winner, and 2-time HOY.
Despite his lack of success against Slew - which the only real knock on him - I would rank him #1 in the last 30 years.

[GBBob]

Originally Posted by Cardus

I'm not going to carry on with this all night, but let's take a look:

I was at the Gold Cup that he lost to Skip Away. Great race. I haven't seen a crowd that size at a Gold Cup since. Where'd those fans go?

Cigar ran in the Mass Cap, too. I see that Suffolk has thrived since.

A great horse brings out fans... on the day he or she runs at the local racetrack.

Disagree....you can debate all night long the merit of Cigar vs others, but how can you limit what it means getting people to the track? How do you know where those fans went? I saw Cigar at Arlington in that made for TV race and it was incredible. How many rock stars horses actually exist? Or existed? That could be another string on it's own.
Fast forward ten or eleven years...If he was running now and not "positioning" himself for races, what would it be like? We are gaga over SS but who would win that match race?

[letswastemoney]

Originally Posted by GBBob

Disagree....you can debate all night long the merit of Cigar vs others, but how can you limit what it means getting people to the track? How do you know where those fans went? I saw Cigar at Arlington in that made for TV race and it was incredible. How many rock stars horses actually exist? Or existed? That could be another string on it's own.
Fast forward ten or eleven years...If he was running now and not "positioning" himself for races, what would it be like? We are gaga over SS but who would win that match race?

Only Funny Cide has matched Cigar's "rock star" status

[Riot]

Afleet Alex, Funny Cide, Barbaro - horse racing is suddenly becoming very, very cool again.

If the sport would only take advantage of the groundswell, and get some readily accessible major network TV deals at this point in time!

They ignored TV in the 1950's, and eventually lost out to football, and now NASCAR.

Edit: and I just remembered ... if the Hennigan brothers can indeed get their "First Saturday in May" movie on TV next year the week before the Derby - on a station most people will stumble across - wow!

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Riot

Afleet Alex, Funny Cide, Barbaro - horse racing is suddenly becoming very, very cool again.

If the sport would only take advantage of the groundswell, and get some readily accessible major network TV deals at this point in time!

They ignored TV in the 1950's, and eventually lost out to football, and now NASCAR.

Edit: and I just remembered ... if the Hennigan brothers can indeed get their "First Saturday in May" movie on TV next year the week before the Derby - on a station most people will stumble across - wow!

Funny that those three are the ones u mentioned. Barbaro never ran past the second week in May. Alex never ran past the first week in June. Smarty Jones was another very popular one and he also never ran past the first week in June. The sport can't take advantage of any groundswell because the swell flattens out before it can mount to anything. There won't be any major network TV deals either. Look how promising the Travers looked after the Belmont. Imagine that u are a network exec and u are promoting the Travers as a matchup of the three TC winners plus Any Given Saturday. Imagine how u would have felt when they ran the race with only one of the four. Back in the day, when horses actually raced, u could do something like that. Not in today's game. More often than not, u will end up looking like a fool for promoting a horse that doesn't show up.

[Riot]

The sport can't take advantage of any groundswell because the swell flattens out before it can mount to anything.

Good point.

More often than not, u will end up looking like a fool for promoting a horse that doesn't show up.

True concern, however I'd guess the lack of network interest in horse racing is based more upon the terrible ratings horse racing routinely receives no matter the actual content (can't sell ad time).

I always get excited when horse racing has a David Beckham celebrity (Cigar, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones) to fill some seats and pique interest, even if those seats are filled with butts that wouldn't recognize a filly from a colt, and won't be there mid-winter at Aqueduct. You have to start somewhere when making new fans.

But when the sport gets one of those PR gifts (Street Sense, Borel, and Nafzger could have been a great one, spanning a years time!), horse racing pretty much ignores everyone not already within the loop.