Trainer Jack Sisterson saw his two expected entrants for Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct register their final workouts Saturday at Keeneland, with Bon Raison and True Timber each working five furlongs on the main track. The duo breezed with different workmates.
Calumet Farm’s Bon Raison will be looking to rebound from a 10th-place finish last out in the six-furlong Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint on November 7 at Keeneland. He will be running at one mile for the first time in seven starts, dating to the second race of his 5-year-old campaign when against optional claimers under then-trainer Michael Tannuzzo on January 31.
True Timber, also owned by Calumet Farm, was third in last year’s edition of the Cigar Mile, earning a 101 Beyer Speed Figure for his black type effort in a race won by Maximum Security. He was second in the 2018 Cigar Mile behind Patternrecognition. The 6-year-old son of Mineshaft will be looking for his first win of 2020 but has hit the board three times in four starts since Sisterson took over the training duties from Kiaran McLaughlin, who retired to become a jockey agent.
Bon Raison recorded a bullet 59.20 seconds Saturday, the fastest of a group of 18, while True Timber went in 1:01.40.
“Both worked very well at Keeneland yesterday and went five-eighths, they didn’t go in company together,” Sisterson said. “They did everything we asked them to and more. We don’t typically train them hard, but I wanted to get a good work in them leading up to the Cigar Mile. We are stretching them out to a mile and wanted to get a little air into the lungs and they both worked well within themselves and cooled out great.”
True Timber is slated to have the services of jockey Kendrick Carmouche for the Cigar Mile, which will feature its 32nd edition as the headliner of four graded stakes over the Big A main track on Saturday that will also include the Grade 2, $150,000 Remsen for juveniles, the $150,000 Demoiselle for 2-year-old fillies, and the Grade 3, $100,000 Go for Wand for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.
Bon Raison will have the services of jockey Jorge Vargas, Jr. It will mark his first start at Aqueduct since running third in the Grade 3 Tom Fool going six furlongs on March 7.
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