High Cotton
 

Another stakes win at 8.5 furlongs for this 3yo last Saturday. So far this colt has had a good year, winning the Rushaway and Sir Barton in addition to his G3 win on Saturday (all at 8.5 furlongs). He is out of an AP Indy mare, and his old man won the Haskell, so it seems like he might EVENTUALLY be effective stretching out to 9 or 10 furlongs and competing at a high level (although he certainly doesn't seem ready for that now).
Do you guys think this colt will improve enough to be a competitive G1 horse, or will he continue being a fairly decent minor stakes horse?

I don't think so. He's had perfect trips in his last 2 races. In both cases, he really didn't get pushed for the lead and nobody could make up any ground.

He's definately a nice colt and has every right to mature into a top class handicap horse.

I think he can compete at the Grade I level. I will have to say that this might be Pletchers best training job. He has done wonder with this horse. I think he can gain confidence, swagger and get better by running in these lesser races. I understand he is going to target the Ohio Derby next.

No, I don't think he's a top horse. He'll make a very nice living in grade 3/non-graded stakes but, IMO, he is already what he is; I don't forsee him improving enough to compete with Jazil and Bluegrass Cat, let alone Bernardini.

his last effort was surprising to me after running to huge the time before. He probably bounced sheet wise and still won but these last two efforts had to tax him tremendously, IMO

Betsy,
I agree. He's good but not quite good enough.
We'll see what he does next, but I expect a drop in class before too long.
DTS

He didn't go to the lead in the race this past weekend. He came from off the pace.
With regard to how good he is, I don't think he's a Grade I race. His last couple of races were against meidocre horses.

OK, so it wasn't wire to wire. He sat a length off a slow pace and won. After Private Vow basically fell over, running positions were unchanged. Nobody could pass because they went so slow early.

He seems to be improving and might be able to grab something like the West Virginia Derby.

Pletcher's B Team is better than most A Teams.

His 2 A team three year olds are overrated though.

i don't think Bluegrass Cat is overrated. and he's spotting High Cotton nicely to give him a chance to step up when he's ready.