Florida sire High Cotton pensioned

High Cotton, a prominent sire in Florida, has been pensioned from stallion duty due to declining fertility.

The 15-year-old son of Dixie Union spent his entire career at Ocala Stud in Ocala, Fla., and he will continue to reside there as a pensioner. He stood the 2017 breeding season for a fee of $4,000.

“We really saw a decline in his fertility, and the partnership just made the decision that it would be in his best interest to just look after him and not market him as a commercial stallion,” said David O’Farrell of Ocala Stud. “He’s been good to us and he’s a neat horse. He’ll have the remainder of his life here.”

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High Cotton has sired eight crops of racing age, with 233 winners and combined progeny earnings in excess of $14.2 million. He was Florida’s leading freshman sire of 2011 and the state’s top juvenile sire of 2015.

The stallion’s debut book of mares produced Grade 1 winner Currency Swap and Grade 2-placed stakes winner Tarpy’s Goal. Future seasons added Grade 2 winner Spurious Precision; Grade 2-placed stakes winner Speak Logistics; stakes winners R Angel Katelyn, Dream of Me, Surprise Wedding, She’s Incredible, April Gaze, Karen’s Silk, High Roller, and Pink Cotton; and Grade 3-placed Talk Logistics and Very Very Stella.

High Cotton finished the 2017 racing calendar with five horses that earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90 or above, and that group did it a combined eight times. His top performer was Talk Logistics, who hit the mark on three occasions, led by a 94 he earned while second in the Grade 3 Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx in September.

Bred in Kentucky by William S. Farish and Ogden Mills Phipps, High Cotton is out of the unraced A.P. Indy mare Happy Tune, and he is a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Symphony Sid. Happy Tune is a is a half-sister to champion Storm Song, from the family of Irish classic winner Order of St George, Singapore champion Better Life, Grade 2 winner Diamond Omi, Grade 3/Group 3 winners Angel Terrace and Asperity, and Grade 1-placed Trojan Nation.

High Cotton won 4 of 17 starts for earnings of $462,574, highlighted by victories in the Grade 3 Northern Dancer Breeders’ Cup Stakes, and the listed Rushaway Stakes and Sir Barton Stakes. He also earned runner-up finishes in the Grade 2 Ohio Derby and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, along with the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes. Todd Pletcher trained High Cotton for owner Peachtree Stable.