The last of four graded stakes on Saturday and last Grade 1 race on the NYRA calendar, the $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap provided a thrilling finale to the three-day Holiday Fest at Aqueduct Racetrack, with the Christophe Clement-trained Tonalist rolling home down the center of the track to prevail in a desperate drive to the wire. 

Coming off a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland, where he was beaten 12 ½ lengths behind American Pharoah, Tonalist got back to familiar climes on Saturday and made his first start around one turn since finishing second to Honor Code in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 6 at Belmont Park.

Facing a field that included last year's winner, Private Zone, and his talented stablemate Red Vine, Tonalist lagged at the back of the pack under Hall of Famer John Velazquez despite being equipped with blinkers for the first time since the Met Mile.

The 6-5 favorite and Breeders' Cup Sprint runner-up Private Zone, trying to get out down the backstretch, led the field through soft splits of 24.15 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, 48.50 for the half and 1:13.04 for three-quarters, with Red Vine and Matrooh in close pursuit and Mshawish just behind the leading triumvirate.

Rounding the far turn, with positions unchanged, Tonalist appeared to be spinning his wheels as 99-1 longshot Full of Mine looked to pass him to his outside, but the bay colt kicked it in gear at the top of the stretch and took off after Red Vine, Matrooh and Mshawish, as Private Zone faded from contention.

In upper stretch, Matrooh inherited the lead from Private Zone but was quickly confronted by Mshawish on the outside. Wider still, Tonalist was in full flight for the wire but appeared to have too much to do at the eighth pole as Red Vine looked to pick up the mantle between horses.

With less than a sixteenth of a mile remaining, it look as if any of the four could win, but Tonalist would not be denied, surging to the front in the final strides and nipping his stablemate by a neck.

"I got anxious a little bit when we passed the half-mile pole," said Velazquez, who inherited the mount aboard Tonalist six starts ago. "We were going so slow on the backstretch and I could see the horse on the lead keep trying to get back, throwing his head up, and Javier [Castellano, aboard Mshawish] seemed to be taking back. I was thinking that we were just walking with these horses here. I was close enough I didn't worry about it but when we got to the turn, they started to move away from me. Now I wanted to do it little by little; I didn't want to shake him up too much and then not get him going, so I got him little by little, where he was comfortable. By the five-sixteenths pole, he started moving so I said, 'OK, now he's moving.' [Full of Mine] came to him by the quarter-pole and he got into the bridle and started running. My job was trying to put him in the clear, run him in the clear. When I got him clear and hit him, he responded right away. The last sixteenth of a mile was really good, very exciting."

Tonalist, who completed the mile in 1:37.14, gave Clement his first victory in the Cigar Mile. The Robert Evans color-bearer also gave Clement his first Classic victory when he took the 2014 Belmont Stakes over Triple Crown hopeful California Chrome.

"I'm always a little bit worried when I run him," said Clement. "The race was run in a funny way; they went so slow early on, which I didn't think was great for us. But that's what good horses do - they win and they overcome things."

Red Vine again showed his affinity for going a mile on dirt with another top three placing. The 5-year-old son of Candy Ride, ridden again on Saturday by Joel Rosario, entered the race off a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and had never been worse than third in four attempts at the trip.

"I'm a very lucky man. They both ran very well," said Clement. "Joel [Rosario] came back and said he was very unlucky [on Red Vine]. The fun thing for me, as a trainer, was having the two best horses in the race."

Sent off as the 2-1 second choice, Tonalist returned $6.40 on a $2 win wager and increased his earnings to over $3.6 million.

Red Vine finished a neck in front of Matrooh, who was three-quarters of a length in front of Mshawish. Private Zone and Full of Mine completed the order of finish.

Though no formal plan has been made, Clement indicated that both Tonalist and Red Vine could remain in training next year. Regardless, both will be given a much-deserved break after long campaigns, according to the trainer. - Aqueduct Racecourse