(Edited press release)
Dogwood Stable’s Cotton Blossom, a grade I winner and earner of more than $700,000, has been retired from racing after sustaining an injury in the Aug. 4 Test Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga.
“Cotton Blossom was shipped to Kentucky after she exhibited lameness following the race, and ultrasounds have confirmed there is significant damage in her sesamoidean ligaments, along with bone chips in the ankle,” Dogwood Stable president Cot Campbell said in a statement Aug. 13. “Her future in racing would be very bleak, and it is clearly indicated that she be retired.”
Cotton Blossom will be sold at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Selected Mixed Sale Nov. 4, and will be handled by Three Chimneys Farm.
Trained throughout her career by Todd Pletcher, Cotton Blossom raced for two years, and has a career record of 4-2-2 from 11 career starts, 10 of them stakes.
Cotton Blossom's career highlights include victories in June 9 Acorn (gr. I) at Belmont Park and last year's Schuylerville Stakes (gr. III) at Saratoga. She also won the March 17 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs.
The daughter of Broken Vow was second in the Spinaway (gr. I) at Saratoga during her juvenile season, a year that was capped off with a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) at Churchill Downs.
Other graded stakes-placed efforts during the filly’s career include a second in this year's Fantasy Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn Park and a third in the Delaware Oaks (gr. II).
Cotton Blossom is out of the Dixieland Band mare For Dixie, and is a half-sister to other Dogwood Stables graded stakes winner Vicarage (by Vicar).
Winner of the 2005 Perryville Stakes (gr. III) at Keeneland and the Smoke Glacken Stakes at Belmont Park, 5-year-old Vicarage was also second in the Louisiana Derby (gr. II) at Fair Grounds and the Ack Ack Handicap (gr. III) at Churchill Downs during his 3-year-old season.
Vicarage aditionally posted third-place finishes in the 2005 Hutcheson Stakes (gr. II) at Gulfstream Park, the Poker Handicap (gr. III) at Belmont Park, and the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs. He ran third in the June 23 Sneakbox Stakes at Monmouth Park.
