Oaklawn: Grade 1 winner Shotgun Gulch retired

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Shotgun Gulch, a Grade 1 winner who had been pointing for next month’s Grade 3, $150,000 Azeri at Oaklawn Park, has been retired after emerging from a Friday workout with a cracked sesamoid in her left foreleg, her breeder, owner, and trainer C.R. Trout said on Saturday.

The injury was detected Saturday morning after X-rays were performed, said Trout. He said the crack is on the top part of the sesamoid. Trout said Shotgun Gulch would not need surgery. Plans are to breed her this season, with three possible stallion options being considered: Uncle Mo, Giant’s Causeway, or Mineshaft.

Shotgun Gulch, a 5-year-old mare by Thunder Gulch, won 7 of 21 starts and $528,976. The highlight of her career came last April, when she won the Grade 1 Madison at seven furlongs at Keeneland. Overall Shotgun Gulch won five stakes, two of them against fellow Oklahoma-breds at Remington Park.

“She just had so much heart,” Trout said. “I liken her to the little train that said, ‘I think I can, I think I can.’ ”

Shotgun Gulch is out of the Boston Harbor mare Rosieville, who on Friday night had a foal by Harlan’s Holiday, said Trout. He said Shotgun Gulch would ship home to his farm in Okalahoma in the next few days from her base of Oaklawn.