This year's dual-Derby hero Harzand has been retired to the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in Co Kildare where he will stand alongside his sire, Sea The Stars.
No fee has yet been announced for the colt who provided trainer Dermot Weld with a long-awaited success at Epsom in June when he overcame a late foot injury scare to beat both US Army Ranger and Idaho.
Irish Derby success
Later that month Harzand also landed the Irish Derby at the
Curragh
but sustained a bad cut when out of the money in September’s Irish Champion Stakes and later failed to fire in the Arc. “He’s been a wonderful horse to train. It’s been a team effort. It hasn’t been the easiest – when he spread the plate before Epsom it was nerve-racking – but it was guts and courage that won the day,” Weld said.
“He then went on antibiotics as he picked up an infection after Epsom but he came back stronger than ever to win the Irish Derby,” he added.
Harzand ran seven times, winning four times, including the Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown in April. He was ridden in all his races by champion jockey Pat Smullen.
Weld has indicated he will have a much reduced team of National Hunt horses this winter and it appears like the high-class stayer Forgotten Rules won’t be racing over hurdles. Forgotten Rules first raced in a bumper before progressing to become a Group Two winner on the flat in the 2014 Long Distance Cup. He was seventh in the same race earlier this month.
"In that ground I think the run at Ascot is as good as he is. The year he won the race the ground was almost unraceable," the Moyglare Stud spokesperson, Fiona Craig, said. "He has been schooled over hurdles before. He jumped fine but he's not really a natural jumper. I'd say we'll give him a break now."
