Bluegrass Cat

Bluegrass Cat is yet another top 3-year-old that has been retired prematurely from the track; this time due to an injury to his hind pastern. The injury came at a very bad time for Bluegrass Cat, he had just exhibited what Todd Pletcher described as a “break-through performance” in the Haskell and he seemed to be maturing well and getting better with each start. At that pace Bluegrass Cat could well have become one of the important players next year in the misnamed ‘handicap’ division.

But WinStar Farm, the owner of Bluegrass Cat, had no intention of ever racing him next year. Readers of the Bloodhorse already were seeing the clues after the Haskell. At first it came as a stylized claw with blue outlines in a white background and nothing more. As the issues kept coming, the advertising campaign became clearer showing pictures inside the claw of Bluegrass Cat winning the Haskell. I, like many others, was scratching my head trying to figure out if Bluegrass Cat had been retired before the Travers and I had somehow missed the announcement. After all, it is not standard practice, nor logic, to spend so much advertising money in a teaser campaign if the horse’s retirement is not immanent.

It is obvious to all that the horse was not yet as good as Bernardini and for that matter Invasor, Lava Man or Sun King. So it is not likely that he would have caused a huge impact in the Breeders Cup. He also seemed to be out of the running for top 3 year-old honors. But the injury to Blugrass Cat, as tragic as it is for the horse and for racing fans, could not have come at a better time for WinStar. Bluegrass Cat had just had a runaway performance in the Haskell and now all involved are hinting that he may have done better in the Travers had the injury not occurred. “I guess we will never know how close he was to Bernardini” will no doubt be the sales pitch.

But we can hardly blame WinStar for wanting to cash in on their investment as soon as possible. After all they have one of the top stallion prospects of next year on their hands; A hot 3 year-old who is a son of Storm Cat! It is always unfortunate to lose such a talented individual for racing but I am certainly looking forward to the next stage of his career.