SUPERSTAR chaser Sprinter Sacre, who so gloriously regained his Champion Chase crown in March with one of the Cheltenham Festival's most emotionally-charged victories, has been retired.
The brilliant ten-year-old, winner of 18 of his 24 starts - including nine at Grade 1 level - and £1,136,884 in total prize-money, sustained a minor leg injury this week while being prepared for a return to action in next month's Tingle Creek
Trainer Nicky Henderson broke the news on Twitter, describing the two-time Champion Chase hero, who last season made an incredible comeback after problems with an irregular heart, as "the horse of an absolute lifetime".
Speaking at Cheltenham, the tearful trainer said: "We're going to miss him. It has been a great part of our lives and the most extraordinary journey."
Henderson added: "His ability and charisma go together. He is the epitome of the horse who looks the part, moves the part and is the part. Life will have to go on without him. It has been such an emotional time over the last five or six years but I have loved every minute of it. All good things have to come to an end."
'We've put ourselves through enough'
Explaining Sprinter Sacre's career-ending setback, the trainer said: "It all crept up yesterday [Saturday]. He worked on Tuesday and everything was grand. We were just a bit worried on Wednesday night as he was warm in one leg. I was going to work him yesterday but we couldn't work him.
"We scanned it and it does say don't [work him]. I think at his age and where we have been, we have put ourselves through enough – not the horse because I think he has enjoyed every minute of it – that we could not ask him to come back at 11 rising 12."
The Caroline Mould-owned star was a top novice hurdler, finishing third in the 2011 Supreme Novices' Hurdle, but it was over fences he excelled to become one of the all-time greats.
The signs were there from the very start as he won his chase debut at Doncaster by 24 lengths during a novice chase campaign that climaxed with a seven-length defeat of Cue Card in the Racing Post Arkle.
A powerful traveller and exuberant jumper, Sprinter Sacre started out in open company in 2012-13 in trademark fashion with an exhilarating performance to win the Tingle Creek by 15 lengths, the first victory in a perfect five-race campaign.
Dominant in 2013
Such was Sprinter Sacre's aura in his pomp, he scared off the opposition in the 2013 Champion Chase and, sent off the shortest-priced festival favourite (1-4) since Arkle in the 1966 Gold Cup, he showed why people wanted to avoid him with a 19-length demolition of previous winner Sizing Europe.
Sprinter Sacre Cheltenham 13.3.13
The season ended with victories at Aintree and Punchestown - the only time he ran outside of Britain - and he was allotted a rating of 188 at the Anglo-Irish Jumps Classifications, the second highest figure behind only Kauto Star on 190.
The following season disaster struck on his comeback when his perfect ten-race record over fences ended at Kempton. He was pulled up in the Desert Orchid Chase, after which it transpired he had an irregular heartbeat.
Recalling that period, Henderson said: "If we had finished it after Kempton, when it all started going a bit wrong, we would have said this was a fantastically good racehorse and we will leave it alone. But what happened last year is something that will never be repeated, not in my lifetime. In terms of emotion anyway, it took us to the brink."
The long road back
Sprinter Sacre returned in January 2015 with a second at Ascot before being pulled up in the Champion Chase. He suffered another reversal on the last day of the season at Sandown as calls for his retirement grew louder.
Connections persisted and at the start of last season he showed some of his old spark with a comeback win in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham, a first since the Punchestown festival two years earlier.
Another success followed in the Desert Orchid to fuel dreams of a Lazarus-like return in the Champion Chase.
In what was his greatest triumph, he reclaimed his two-mile crown with a comprehensive defeat of Un De Sceaux to lift the roof of the famous stands at Cheltenham.
He rounded off an unbelievable campaign with victory in the Celebration Chase, which proved to be his final start.
Sprinter Sacre - Nico de Boinville winners lead in
Before taking up the role of JP McManus' retained rider, Barry Geraghty rode Sprinter Sacre and he added to the tributes, saying: "He was a brilliant horse. He lost a bit of his flair through illness but it was great to see him come back to somewhere like his former glory last season. He was a superstar and in his pomp he was unbelievable.
"I can't say I ever rode a horse over a fence, the way Sprinter went. On his day I never sat on anything like that, the way he could extend, ping and land running."
After Geraghty had stepped down from the position of Henderson's stable jockey, riding duties went to Sprinter Sacre's work-rider Nico de Boinville, who partnered the two-mile champion to four victories in five starts.
The news will have been another blow to the jockey as he prepared undergo surgery on a broken arm on Sunday.
Ante-post reaction
In Sprinter Sacre's absence, Douvan hardened to a best-priced 8-11 for the Champion Chase.
"It would have been sad if it had gone the other way and Douvan had come along and smashed him, we'd have thought we should have drawn stumps," said Henderson. "Not that we were going to be that negative; we were going to beat Douvan! Good luck Willie [Mullins] - look out, Altior is on the horizon."
Back at Cheltenham, Sprinter Sacre, accompanied by his tearful groom Sarwah Mohammed, joined the runners in the parade for Shloer Chase and the crowds packed around the paddock to say goodbye to a legend.
racingpost.com
Last edit: 8 years 6 months ago by Bob Brogan.
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