Cigar

For the first time in two years, Cigar is back in the public eye. The two-time Horse of the Year, born nine years ago in Maryland, walked off a van into his new home Sunday at the Kentucky Horse Park, a public facility in Lexington.Since May 1997, Cigar has resided at the private farm of an equine-reproductive specialist who attempted to reverse Cigar's infertility. After efforts failed, the insurance company that owns Cigar decided to send him to the horse park, which is open year-round to visitors.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- At the Kentucky Horse Park, Cigar is "the world's horse."That's what the narrator calls him as Cathy Roby leads the two-time Horse of the Year into the pavilion at the park's Hall of Champions, Cigar's home since May. Three times each day, Roby shows off Cigar in the small pavilion where a narrator chronicles his career while Cigar eyes his adoring fans and pricks his ears at each camera's click."

The headline in the weekly magazine Thoroughbred Times read: "Plans set for Cigar's retirement." The response from London: "Oh, no, they're not."Ever since reporting Nov. 22 that Cigar was likely headed to the Kentucky Horse Park, a tourist attraction near Lexington, Ky., I have telephoned London weekly, seeking confirmation of plans for the Maryland-bred two-time Horse of the Year. Spokesmen there for Assicurazioni Generali SpA have said repeatedly that a plan to move Cigar to the Kentucky Horse Park awaits final approval from Generali executives.

Parents of a chronically truant pupil could be forced to do community service at their child's school.The City Council introduced an amendment to the municipal truancy law last night that would allow a judge to sentence parents to community service at the school for no more than 60 days."

DON'T CRY FOR the tobacco industry. Despite the $368 billion settlement it agreed last year to pay, tobacco companies are far healthier than their customers: Forty-six million Americans risk health problems from smoking, and the overseas market promises enormous profits for the industry.In addition, as Sun reporter Alec Klein reports in a three-part series that concludes today, cigar makers have waged a stealth campaign to promote their products as the essence of cool, without mentioning -- or being required to mention -- the health hazards.

PARIS, Ky. -- As the brown grass turns to green in the land of the bluegrass, Cigar approaches his ninth spring with not a care in the world.He is not being bred to mares. He is not training for races. He is, in the words of his keeper, veterinarian Phil McCarthy, simply being a horse."I've been around him long enough to know that he's a very happy animal," said McCarthy, who has cared for Cigar since May at his Watercress Farm in Kentucky.As Desmond Ryan, farm manager, led Cigar out of his stall, the great brown horse arched his neck, and his rangy body began to swell -- as if he were ready to race again.

Leaders of the U.S. cigar industry have pledged to stop placing their products in movies and on television, a controversial practice that has come under mounting attacks from members of Congress and anti-tobacco organizations fearful of the impact of Hollywood on children.The board of directors of the Cigar Association of America, the industry trade group whose members produce more than 95 percent of cigars sold in the United States, has amended its guidelines on advertising standards to "admonish" its members to halt the practice, which cigar makers had employed in such high-profile films as "Independence Day" and the television show "Friends."

EVERY SO OFTEN I get the urge to try a few things, to file a few dispatches from the eating front. So here are a few short accounts of good things I have recently put in my mouth.I'll start with the moist and flavorful pit-beef sandwich I ate at Andy Nelson's in Hunt Valley. One weeknight I had pit beef on the brain. I had finished a long telephone conversation with a writer in Minnesota who had seen John Waters' latest film, "Pecker." Pecker is the film's main character, who lives with a family that runs a pit-beef stand in the yard.

Cigar Charlie doesn't like to be whipped, had an unfamiliar jockey and was running on a new track yesterday.But none of that mattered when the gray filly stalked the pace, then out-dueled Leave No Prints to win the $53,800 Wide Country Stakes, the closing-day feature at Laurel Park.It was the Maryland debut for Cigar Charlie, who was backed as a 2-to-5 favorite in a field of six 3-year-old females going 1 1/8 miles."The trainer [Michael Dickinson] told me this filly really resented the whip in her last race, " said Edgar Prado, who was aboard the horse for the first time.

Fader's, the century-old cigar and pipe emporium that has counted H. L. Mencken and Tom Selleck among its clients, has been sold to a Pennsylvania cigar distributor, Ira B. "Bill" Fader Jr., president, said yesterday.Fader, whose grandfather started the business in downtown Baltimore in 1891, sold the six-store chain to a corporation headed by Lancaster businessman and Baltimore native Michael J. Goeller for an undisclosed amount. Goeller distributes cigars to 80 mini-markets, country clubs and restaurants in central Pennsylvania through Lancaster Venture Corp.

Curlin is Tiger Woods in horseshoes. He is tall, with rippling muscles and a dominating record, and he stepped into the limelight when his sport needed a star. He was the 2007 Horse of the Year, and when he goes off in the 90th running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup tomorrow, he will have the chance to become North American racing's all-time leading money-winner. If he does that, he'll break Maryland-bred Cigar's record of $9,999,815. Cigar was born at Country Life Farm. His career performance has been a longtime feather in Maryland's racing cap. While it is sad to see Maryland racing lose another piece of history, Curlin's bid for the career earnings record can only be good for the sport.

Records, as we all know, are made to be broken. And Curlin, winner of the 2007 Preakness, is on the threshold of breaking one of horse racing's most impressive records - the most money ever won by a North American thoroughbred. The problem is the record is held by Cigar, a Maryland-bred who shares still another distinction - 16 straight victories, a mark reached by only one other horse, the great Citation. Cigar hit his peak as a 5- and 6-year-old, winning nearly $5 million each season (1995 and 1996)

It's lunchtime. But the Mayor and his crew aren't eating. They never do. The midday break is better spent in the burgundy leather chairs and stools at the back of Fader's tobacco shop in Towson. Bob Fryer sits down with a Pedrone, a six-inch hand-rolled cigar from Nicaragua. He cuts the tip with a palm-sized tool, pulls out a lighter and draws the smoke in quick, kiss-like puffs until an orange flame jumps from the tip and a fragrant curl of smoke streams upward. Marc Horwitz flicks ash from an Arturo Fuente Hemingway, and Carl Crenshaw relights an Artero Fuente 8-5-8.

In the opening of a trial that promises a glimpse into a rogue specialized Baltimore police unit, a woman testified yesterday that an officer coerced her into sex in exchange for freedom from drug charges. Crying throughout much of her testimony, the woman said Officer Jemini Jones crudely threatened to send her to jail -- not only for the marijuana she had been arrested with, but also for possessing other drugs. The woman's rape claim in December 2005 sparked a wider internal police review of the Southwestern District "flex squad," a small group of officers who worked mostly undercover in drug investigations.

Joseph Hill, 57, lead vocalist and songwriter for the traditional roots reggae group Culture, died Saturday after falling ill in Berlin while the group was in the middle of a European tour. One of reggae's most enduring bands, Culture was led by Mr. Hill for three decades. He penned the group's best known songs, including "Two Sevens Clash," "Natty Never Get Weary" and "I'm Not Ashamed." Born in the rural Jamaican parish of St. Catherine, he began his musical career in the late 1960s as a percussionist.

Now that winter's (finally) here, having a cigar on the deck out back sounds a lot less relaxing. You bundle up like an Eskimo, totter outdoors, dig through your jacket for the smoke, try to light the matches with gloves on, drop them and curse the cold. By the time the darn thing's lit, you're shivering and asking yourself if it was worth all that. It's not. If you can't light up indoors but still crave a stogie, try one of these cigar bars downtown. The first spot, Max's on Broadway (737 S. Broadway, 410-675-6297)

Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey has a clear picture of what makes a great jockey and, yesterday, as he announced he will be retiring from racing Jan. 28, he made sure to thank all the horses he has ever ridden. "Not just the Grade I winners, but the ones who tried just as hard, struggling through the stretch, who did not reach the winner's circle, but put their hearts and souls into it. I appreciate and love every one of them," he said. Bailey, who at 48 has spent 31 years trying to get his mounts to the finish line first, approaches his last race with 5,890 winners, including two Kentucky Derby winners - Sea Hero (1993)

CAN YOU TEACH an old guy new tech? Until recently, I would have said, "No." But then I became an earplug person, one of those characters who meanders through life with devices stuck in his ears. In my case, the aural accoutrements are earphones for an iPod shuffle, a tiny digital music player that delivers astonishing sound. Last weekend, I had the earplugs in as I did weekend chores, the modern-day equivalent, I guess, of whistling while I worked. Cozying up to a digital music player represents a major change in my attitude toward technology.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The death of Spectacular Bid last week of an apparent heart attack at age 27 left two thoroughbreds who reside side by side as the greatest living racehorses. Cigar and John Henry, revered residents of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, rank 1-2 among thoroughbreds still alive in accomplishment and, fortunately for fans, visitor accessibility. About 1 million people visit the 1,200-acre park each year, and at least 25 percent come expressly to see Cigar and John Henry, said Cathy Roby, manager of the Hall of Champions.

Zelda G. Cohen, a prominent figure in Maryland racing circles for more than 40 years, died of congestive heart failure Friday at Northwest Hospital Center. She was 99. Born Zelda Greenberg in Baltimore and raised on Whitelock Street, she worked in sales at the downtown Hahn Shoe Store on Lexington Street after her graduation from Eastern High School. In 1928, she married Ben Cohen, a Baltimore businessman who with his brother Herman later owned Pimlico Race Course for 34 years. He also established WAAM-TV - now WJZ - in 1948.