Stradivarius, one of the greatest staying racehorses of all-time, has been retired at the age of eight, his owner Bjorn Nielsen has confirmed.
The John Gosden-trained horse won three Ascot Gold Cups, a record four Goodwood Cups and twice landed the £1million stayers’ bonus for winning both contests, as well as the Yorkshire and Lonsdale cups in the same season.
In all, the son of Sea The Stars won 20 of his 35 starts across seven seasons, seven of them in Group 1 company, and amassed almost £5.5million in prize money.
Stradivarius was ridden throughout much of his career by Frankie Dettori, though the jockey lost the booking to Andrea Atzeni for this year’s Goodwood Cup after he was publicly criticised by Gosden for his Gold Cup ride at Royal Ascot.
Under Atzeni, Stradivarius was beaten a neck by the Aidan Obrien-trained Kyprios in a thriller at Goodwood in what turned out to be his final racecourse outing.
Nielsen confirmed on Monday morning that the horse would not return for his nine-year-old season next term having been slow to recover from a bruised foot suffered last month and would instead be retired to stud.
“It has been a great thrill to watch him racing all these years but you always know they can’t go on forever,” Nielsen said. “We contemplated stopping him at the end of last season but he showed us he wanted to go again, which was remarkable in itself.
“In the end we decided to keep him in training for three races and he ran in all three, winning the Yorkshire Cup first time out and then having no luck at Ascot and Goodwood. But each time he showed the fire was still there.
“He was consistently prolific, going round and round, winning all those staying races again and again. Even if I am fortunate to win the Derby or the Arc at some point in the future, I know I will never have another horse like him. He was hugely appreciated by the public. It was just a joy from start to finish.”
