Wildcat Shoes Retired With Sesamoid Injury

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(from Churchill Downs notes)
Patricia Blass' homebred Wildcat Shoes, who set a Churchill Downs track record at five furlongs in his last start, has been retired with a sesamoid injury, trainer William "Jinks" Fires said Wednesday.

The speedy 4-year-old son of Forest Wildcat fractured the sesamoid on the inside of his left ankle during a five-furlong workout at Churchill Downs on June 12. Wildcat Shoes was being pointed toward the $150,000-added Aristides Breeders' Cup (gr. III) on July 25.

Wildcat Shoes ended his career on a three-race winning streak, his last victory coming in a 2 3/4-length win in a five-furlong allowance race at Churchill in a track-record time of :56.49.

That effort convinced his connections that better things were to come.

"That was a hard (telephone) call to make," Fires said of informing the Blasses. "They were so high about how he was doing. We were thinking down the road about the Breeders' Cup (Sprint)."

Wildcat Shoes won the 2004 Lost Code Breeders' Cup Stakes at Hawthorne last year and the 2003 Sugar Bowl Stakes as a 2-year-old at Fair Grounds. He earned $352,512 with eight wins in 20 starts.

"It's very disappointing," said Fires. "The good thing about it is that he's coming off a three-race win streak and one of them set a track record. That was good and I would think he would stand pretty good at stud."

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