After showing only modest promise as a juvenile, Joe Cotton blossomed in the spring of his 3-year-old season to become the best sophomore in the country. Unfortunately, he was never quite the same again after suffering an injury in the early fall of 1885, and by the fall of 1886, he had become a bleeder. After a long rest between his 4- and 5-year-old seasons, he came out roaring with three consecutive stakes wins before his bleeding started again, and after that, he began drifting down the class ladder. He could not even win at the selling-race level by the time he suffered a career-ending injury at the Mystic Park track in Boston in 1888. After he finished his last race riderless and with a broken shoulder, it was widely supposed that he had been humanely destroyed, but instead he turned up a few years later in Massachusetts, where he had been nursed back to health and had sired a few half-bred foals. He later sired a few Thoroughbred foals but had no real opportunity as a sire.
Race record
54 starts, 17 wins, 6 seconds, 7 thirds, $29,365
1884:
1885:
1886:
1887:
Honors
American champion 3-year-old male (1885)
As an individual
A chestnut horse standing just under 15.3 hands at the time of his Kentucky Derby win (he was later reported to have grown to 16 hands), Joe Cotton was said to have had his development impeded by illness as a 2-year-old and was further delayed in beginning to show his full merit by a shoulder injury suffered early in his 3-year-old season. According to contemporary accounts, he had a long sloping shoulder and tremendous leverage from hip to hock. His legs were clean and his action was said to be excellent. By the fall of his 4-year-old season, he had become a known bleeder.
As a stallion
Joe Cotton sired only a few Thoroughbred foals, none of any great significance.
Connections
Joe Cotton was bred by A. J. Alexander and was owned by James T. Williams, who bought him for a price variously reported as US$600 or $800 as a yearling and who trained him as a juvenile. The colt was trained to his Kentucky Derby win by Abraham Perry. At 4, Henry Coleman took over training duties. In July 1886, Joe Cotton was purchased by the Dwyer Brothers in a package deal with the 2-year-old King Alfonso filly Bessie June for a reported US$9,000. (Later reports made the purchase price to be US$10,000 or $12,000.) The Dwyers, in turn, sold him to S. W. Street for US$2,000 in October 1887 but by the spring of 1888 had recovered the horse for their own stable. In August 1888, after Joe Cotton had failed to show any of his former ability, he was sold for US$1,000 to Frank Taylor, who was his owner when he broke down at Mystic Park.
Following his near-fatal breakdown, Joe Cotton was apparently given to Charles Jacobs of Medford, Massachusetts, who reportedly took the horse to a river and encouraged him to swim to allow the shoulder to reset itself. The tactic was successful and Jacobs then put Joe Cotton in a sling until the shoulder had healed enough to bear the horse's weight. He then used the stallion as a roadster and bred him to a few half-bred mares. Joe Cotton later came into the ownership of a Mr. Newhall, who used the horse for pulling a cab from the local railway station. Joe Cotton eventually sired a few registered foals, with the last appearing in the American Stud Book in 1898.
Pedigree notes
Joe Cotton is outcrossed through five generations. He is a full brother to Haidee, dam of the California stakes winner Rey del Tierra (by Prince of Norfolk). He is a half brother to 1878 Manhattan Handicap winner Garrick (by Lexington) and to Patroness, dam of 1901 Kentucky Derby winner His Eminence (by Falsetto). He is also a half brother to Lady Caroline (by Australian), second dam of 1903 Preakness Stakes winner Flocarline and 1890 Breeders' Stakes winner Periwinkle.
Inverness, the dam of Joe Cotton, was imported to the United States as an unraced youngster and was stakes-placed in good company in her adopted country. Sired by the 1863 Two Thousand Guineas and Derby Stakes winner Macaroni, she was produced from the Faugh-a-Ballagh mare Elfrida, in turn a daughter of the Liverpool mare Espoir.
Fun facts
Race record
54 starts, 17 wins, 6 seconds, 7 thirds, $29,365
1884:
- 2nd Nursery Stakes (USA, 8FD, Chicago)
- 2nd Post Stakes (USA, 6FD, Lexington)
- 3rd Hyde Park Stakes (USA, 6FD, Chicago)
1885:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 12FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Great Western Handicap (USA, 12FD, Washington Park)
- Won Coney Island Derby (USA, 12FD, Sheepshead Bay)
- Won Tidal Stakes (USA, 8FD, Sheepshead Bay; dead heat with Pardee)
- Won Himyar Stakes (USA, 11FD, Latonia)
- Won Gus Straus Stakes (USA, 8FD, Lexington)
- Won Tennessee Derby (USA, 12FD, Memphis)
- Won Cottrill Stakes (USA, 10FD, New Orleans)
- 2nd Iroquois Stakes (USA, 8FD + 500yd, Saratoga)
- 3rd Clark Stakes (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
1886:
- Won Farewell Stakes (USA, 7FD, Sheepshead Bay; new American record 1:27-1/2)
- 3rd Fourth of July Handicap (USA, 8FD, Monmouth)
1887:
- Won Average Stakes (USA, 9.5FD, Sheepshead Bay; new track record 2:00-1/4)
- Won Twin City Handicap (USA, 10FD, Sheepshead Bay)
- Won Welter Stakes (USA, 10.5FD, Sheepshead Bay)
Honors
American champion 3-year-old male (1885)
As an individual
A chestnut horse standing just under 15.3 hands at the time of his Kentucky Derby win (he was later reported to have grown to 16 hands), Joe Cotton was said to have had his development impeded by illness as a 2-year-old and was further delayed in beginning to show his full merit by a shoulder injury suffered early in his 3-year-old season. According to contemporary accounts, he had a long sloping shoulder and tremendous leverage from hip to hock. His legs were clean and his action was said to be excellent. By the fall of his 4-year-old season, he had become a known bleeder.
As a stallion
Joe Cotton sired only a few Thoroughbred foals, none of any great significance.
Connections
Joe Cotton was bred by A. J. Alexander and was owned by James T. Williams, who bought him for a price variously reported as US$600 or $800 as a yearling and who trained him as a juvenile. The colt was trained to his Kentucky Derby win by Abraham Perry. At 4, Henry Coleman took over training duties. In July 1886, Joe Cotton was purchased by the Dwyer Brothers in a package deal with the 2-year-old King Alfonso filly Bessie June for a reported US$9,000. (Later reports made the purchase price to be US$10,000 or $12,000.) The Dwyers, in turn, sold him to S. W. Street for US$2,000 in October 1887 but by the spring of 1888 had recovered the horse for their own stable. In August 1888, after Joe Cotton had failed to show any of his former ability, he was sold for US$1,000 to Frank Taylor, who was his owner when he broke down at Mystic Park.
Following his near-fatal breakdown, Joe Cotton was apparently given to Charles Jacobs of Medford, Massachusetts, who reportedly took the horse to a river and encouraged him to swim to allow the shoulder to reset itself. The tactic was successful and Jacobs then put Joe Cotton in a sling until the shoulder had healed enough to bear the horse's weight. He then used the stallion as a roadster and bred him to a few half-bred mares. Joe Cotton later came into the ownership of a Mr. Newhall, who used the horse for pulling a cab from the local railway station. Joe Cotton eventually sired a few registered foals, with the last appearing in the American Stud Book in 1898.
Pedigree notes
Joe Cotton is outcrossed through five generations. He is a full brother to Haidee, dam of the California stakes winner Rey del Tierra (by Prince of Norfolk). He is a half brother to 1878 Manhattan Handicap winner Garrick (by Lexington) and to Patroness, dam of 1901 Kentucky Derby winner His Eminence (by Falsetto). He is also a half brother to Lady Caroline (by Australian), second dam of 1903 Preakness Stakes winner Flocarline and 1890 Breeders' Stakes winner Periwinkle.
Inverness, the dam of Joe Cotton, was imported to the United States as an unraced youngster and was stakes-placed in good company in her adopted country. Sired by the 1863 Two Thousand Guineas and Derby Stakes winner Macaroni, she was produced from the Faugh-a-Ballagh mare Elfrida, in turn a daughter of the Liverpool mare Espoir.
Fun facts
- Joe Cotton was one of four Kentucky Derby winners bred by A. J. Alexander; the others were Baden-Baden (1877), Fonso (1880) and Chant (1894). A fifth, His Eminence (1901), was bred from a mating planned by Alexander but was sold in utero to Overton Chenault. All raced for other owners than Alexander, who never started a horse in the Derby.
- Joe Cotton's victory in the 1885 Kentucky Derby, coupled with Lizzie Dwyer's win in the Kentucky Oaks two days later, made King Alfonso the first stallion to complete the Derby/Oaks double in the same year. It has been done only three times since then: by McGee, who sired the 1918 Derby winner Exterminator and the 1918 Oaks winner Viva America; by Bull Lea, who sired 1952 Derby winner Hill Gail and 1952 Oaks winner Real Delight; and by Native Dancer, who sired 1966 Derby winner Kauai King and 1966 Oaks winner Native Street.
- The 1885 Kentucky Derby was the first at which the hawkers of tip sheets were permitted to sell their wares at the track.
- Joe Cotton's race in the 1885 Oakland Handicap at Washington Park (in which he was a heavy favorite) was so bad that a reporter from the Chicago Inter Ocean publicly accused owner-trainer James Williams of having had the colt pulled. Williams, on learning of the accusation, knocked the reporter down and found himself the defendant in a suit for damages.
- Mike Dwyer bet US$60,000 on Joe Cotton in the 1887 Average Stakes, and let jockey James McLaughlin know about it. The result was nearly heart failure for both men, as the horse barely beat his sole rival and was extended to track-record time to do it. McLaughlin had used up so much energy in the ride to the finish that he had to be assisted to the scales on dismounting, and friends of Dwyer testified later that he was in a state of virtual collapse.
- Joe Cotton, the horse, was named for a human contemporary, a notable bookmaker. Joe Cotton, the bookie, was said to have made a considerable amount of money betting on his equine namesake.
- Joe Cotton was listed as dead in Goodwin's Turf Guide for 1888—obviously, a bit prematurely.