Connections of the Queen Elizabeth-owned Cox Plate 2014 favourite Carlton House have confirmed the stallion has been retired from racing to serve at stud.
Kiwi mare Silent Achiever (pictured) is sole favourite for the 2014 Cox Plate after the retirment of Carlton House. Photo: Steve Hart.
Prepared in Sydney by Gai Waterhouse since being imported from Great Britain where Sir Michael Stoute trained them for the Queen of England, Carlton House was equal $13 favourite through Ladbrokes.com.au with Silent Achiever to win this year’s $3 million Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m).
The Moonee Valley weight-for-age feature, running on Saturday October 25, had long been scheduled as the major Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival goal for the Street Cry stallion.
Now six-years-old, Carlton House then last week featured as one of the 225 Cox Plate nominations taken by Racing Victoria.
In a surprise announcement on Monday morning however they have been retired immediately to stand at Darley’s NSW stud at Kelvinside in the upcoming breeding season for a fee of $16,500 plus GST.
“Carlton House is such a magnificent and correct individual,” the Queen’s bloodstock and racing advisor John Warren said according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“He is by one of the most important stallions [Street Cry] in the world.
“Carlton House proved he was high class from the moment he won his two-year-old maiden at Newbury by nine lengths and he was rated up there with the very best.”
A winner of three of their 15 starts for $1,272,645 in prizemoney, Carlton House never broke their Australian maiden despite a number of close calls over their four runs in Australia.
A dual Group winner in Europe and Group 1 performed there too including a British Derby third and Irish Derby fourth in 2011, Carlton House was last seen running third to It’s A Dundeel in the aptly named $4 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 19.
That followed on from their devastatingly close second to the Roger James-trained New Zealand mare Silent Achiever when nosed out of the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes (2000m) win at Rosehill 28 days earlier.
Waterhouse had been fighting to get them back to race fitness after they returned from their spell.
Rumours they weren’t quite right however soon surfaced and it seems they had truth to them after their retirement was confirmed.
Silent Achiever meanwhile has now shortened into sole $11 favourite in the Ladbrokes.com.au Cox Plate odds to continue her good run down under in the Group 1s.
She took out the Ranvet Stakes – The BMW double in Sydney in the autumn, before a Queen Elizabeth fourth in NSW’s richest race, and is also a dual Group 1 winner in her native New Zealand.
Other Cox Plate betting market movers are then the Aidan O’Brien-trained Magician and fellow international raider Mukhadram both in from $15 to $14.
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