Dat You Miz Blue is retired

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Dat You Miz Blue has been retired and is headed to the breeding shed. In her final start, Dat You Miz Blue defeated last year's 3-year-old champion filly, Xtra Heat, in the Garland of Roses Handicap at Aqueduct last Saturday.

Jimmy Jerkens, Dat You Miz Blue's trainer, said he expects Dat You Miz Blue to leave his Belmont Park barn in about 10 days for Kentucky, where she will be bred. A 5-year-old New York-bred mare by Cure the Blues, Dat You Miz Blue is owned by Cynthia Knight and was bred by her late husband, Landon Knight.

Knight has not made a final decision on who Dat You Miz Blue will be bred to, but she said that Chief Seattle, who stands at Spendthrift Farm, is a possibility.

"I made the decision last year that this would be her final year," Knight said. "At the end of her 2-year-old season, she got hurt with a slab fracture. She has screws in that knee, and I always was worried about that. You have to give her a lot of credit. I wonder what her potential would have been if she didn't get hurt?"

Dat You Miz Blue retires with a record of 14-9-4 from 33 starts and earnings of $806,291.

Besides the Garland of Roses, Dat You Miz Blue's stakes wins include the Grade 3 Vagrancy, Iroquois, Broadway, and a division of the New York Stallion Stakes.

Dat You Miz Blue, a winner on dirt and turf, started her career for trainer Bill Badgett. Jerkens began training her at the start of her 2000 campaign.