Cross Traffic retired, will stand at Spendthrift

Cross Traffic, the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Whitney Invitational, has been retired and will stand his debut season at stud at B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm in 2015. His stud fee will be $15,000, the farm announced.

Cross Traffic, a 5-year-old son of Unbridled’s Song, emerged last year as a top contender in the male handicap division with a close runner-up finish to Sahara Sky in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, followed by his win in the Whitney. He was pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Classic but finished seventh in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and was then diagnosed with a shin injury. He did not start this year.

Owned by T. Paul Buhlman’s GoldMark Farm, which purchased him as a yearling for $300,000, Cross Traffic retires with 3 wins from 6 starts and $687,967 in earnings. He is out of the multiple Grade 1-winning Cure the Blues mare Stop Traffic, who has also produced two other stakes horses.

“Cross Traffic had as much brilliance as you’ll find in a horse,” Todd Pletcher, who trained Cross Traffic, said in a statement. “It takes a special talent to do some of the things he did so early in a horse’s racing career.”