Star stayer Stradivarius retired from racing on Monday. Trainer John Gosden made the announcement after consulting with his owner/breeder Bjorn Nielsen.
Stradivarius – always an extremely solid performer! (Pic – British Champion Series)
Gosden stated: “Stradivarius has been the most extraordinary and unique racehorse throughout his career. He exhibited joy in his training and has given enormous pleasure to everyone, both on and off the track.”
“His constitution has been a marvel to behold and his exciting style of travelling easily in a race, and then quickening to pounce, reflected his character.”
“He goes to stud with an amazing race record and enormous affection.”
His haul of seven Group 1 races matched Yeats’s record for a stayer. These victories at the top table included three Gold Cups at Royal Ascot and a record four renewals of the Goodwood Cup. A son of champion Sea The Stars, his standout performance came when he won the 2020 Gold Cup at Ascot by ten lengths from Nayef Road.
Stradivarius recorded a peak official rating of 130, the highest on record for any staying horse in the UK this century, with notables like Subjectivist next on 128 and Yeats on 126. Furthermore, his 20 wins included 18 Group victories, with career earnings of £3,5 million over seven seasons adding to his legacy.
Stradivarius as a baby with owner Bjorn Nielsen (Pic – supplied by John Freeman)
Bjorn Nielsen believed the time was right to retire his champion, who ran this year’s Gold Cup hero Kyprios to a neck on what was his final start in the Gr1 Goodwood Cup in July. Side-lined since suffering a bruised foot last month, the setback forced him to miss his intended outing in the Lonsdale Cup at York.
Nielsen commented: “It would be hard to get him back now for Champions Day and John just thought it would be unfair really to put him through it again as a nine-year-old next year.”
“He’s been the soundest horse – he’s never been medicated, he’d never missed an engagement in his career (through injury) and now to start training him with something that’s kind of there that wasn’t there before, it’s time to draw stumps.”
“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. 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.”
The music may have stopped but the memories will endure.
