Saturday, November 24, 2012
Contact: NYRA Press Office
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JERSEY TOWN SCRATCHED FROM CIGAR MILE, RETIRED
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jersey Town has been retired after being scratched from today's Grade 1, $350,000 Cigar Mile Handicap with a fever, according to trainer Barclay Tagg.
"He came up with a slight temperature and was off his feed a little bit," said Tagg. "We decided to scratch him rather than run him when he wasn't 100 percent. We were very disappointed at not being able to run him. He'll go to Darby Dan Farm on Monday –
if he's healthy enough to travel – and be a stallion."
Jersey Town, a 6-year-old Charles Fipke homebred, was set to attempt to win his second Cigar Mile, having captured the race by a head in 2010 at 34-1. His other graded stakes victory came in his penultimate start, a 3 ½-length win over Shackleford in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap on September 29 at Belmont Park. His career finale was a fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile on November 3 at Santa Anita.
"He's been a lovely horse. He's a tremendous horse to work with," said Tagg. "He had minor little problems his whole career that took a lot of work, but he's very fast, very strong, very competitive, and he loves to run. Those are the kinds of horses you want. We liked everything about him. We had him since he was a 2-year-old, and he will be missed around the barn. He's like a big, old teddy bear. I would say his two best races were the 2010 Cigar Mile and the Kelso just a few weeks ago."
Jersey Town had a stint in the Pacific Northwest where he raced for trainers Barbara Heads and Tim McCanna and placed in the Grade 3 British Columbia Derby and Grade 3 Longacres Mile. He returned to Tagg's barn in the fall of 2010.
By 2004 Champion Sprinter Speightstown, Jersey Town is out of Jersey Girl, who posted Grade 1 triumphs in the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Test.
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