The new owners of Bishops Bay received a quick dividend on their recent purchase in the $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G2).
In a few months' time, they'll find out if they struck gold.
Aside from capturing grade 2 honors for the first time, Bishops Bay kept alive his owners' fervent hopes of running in the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1) Feb. 14 through his gutsy neck win over a determined Mika in the Dec. 6 Cigar at Aqueduct Racetrack.
"The goal is to get to the Middle East and this will help the cause," said Brad Cox, who was retained as the 5-year-old's trainer when KAS Stables bought him for $1.3 million at the Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale last month. "I don't know how soon we'll get the word if he's in, but we'll nominate him and make an attempt to run."
Though he may lack a grade 1 win due to the downgrading of the Cigar in 2023, Bishops Bay has done very little wrong in his 13-race career with nine wins and three seconds. A multiple grade 3 winner coming into Saturday, he has earned $977,800, and two of his losses were by a head.
"He's very game. A very consistent horse who likes to win. I'm proud of the effort," Cox said. "There was some concern that the horse on the lead (Mika) had gotten away when they straightened away, but he needed every inch of ground in the stretch and another well-timed ride by Flavien Prat and got there."
Cox said if the son of Uncle Mo receives an invite to compete in the one-turn, 1 1/8-mile Saudi Cup, he could run in a prep race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Bishops Bay ($4.40) came into the last Cigar contested at the Big A off a victory in Aqueduct's Forty Niner Stakes (G3) at the same mile distance as Saturday's race and was sent off as a 6-5 favorite.
Nice Guys Stables' Mika, a Catholic Boy 3-year-old trained by Mike Maker, scampered clear at the start and led by 3 lengths over Bishops Bay in the field of six after a half-mile in :45.72. He still held a 2 1/2-length lead at the quarter pole through 6 furlongs in 1:09.63 and maintained that same margin at the eighth pole.
But that's when Prat was able to kick Bishops Bay into top gear and the margin began to shrink. Making full use of the mile distance, the son of Uncle Mo took the lead in the final strides and completed the mile in 1:34.62.
"He's a very game horse. He's very honest and always shows up. He has a great mind and wants to win every time, so he's fun to be around," Prat said. "I don't see (the Saudi Cup distance) being a problem."
Bred by WinStar Farm in Kentucky out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Catch My Drift, Bishops Bay is a half brother to grade 2 winner Catching Freedom. He is Catch My Drift's fourth foal and one of her four winners. She also has a weanling full sister to Bishops Bay.
Mika, running in a graded stakes for the first time and in receipt of 7 pounds from the winner, was second by 4 1/4 lengths over Crazy Mason, a Coal Front 4-year-old trained by Gregg Sacco, who rallied from 12 1/2 lengths behind after a half-mile to finish third.
"He ran great," Maker said about Mika. "He's a 3-year-old (running) against older horses, so I am not complaining."
