3 minute read
Dual Group 1 winner Pyledriver has been retired due to a reoccurring suspensory ligament injury.
Trained by William Muir and Chris Grassick, the six-year-old accumulated earnings of over two million pounds during a very successful career. The son of Harbour Watch was quick enough to win over seven furlongs as a juvenile and enjoyed a successful three-year-old campaign, with victories in the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York.
In 2021, Pyledriver landed a first Group 1 success in the Coronation Cup at Epsom Downs and rounded off the season with a second in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase. The five-year-old campaign did not start well with defeats in Riyadh and Meydan, but he bounced back to best with a victory in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July. Although well-beaten in this year's renewal of the race, Pyledriver added to his impressive Ascot record when taking the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at the 2023 Royal meeting.
Muir said: "He worked on Saturday and to be honest he was sensational. He's never a horse we've galloped off the bridle and done anything stupid with, but it was just the way he did it, the way he moved, the way he looked, and he marched off the gallops like a lion,"
"I actually said to the owners 'you've just seen your next winner' and he was fine 90 per cent of the way home, but when he got back to the yard, he was just a little bit sore in the same place we first got the suspensory injury before.
"I called my vet and he said he'd just tweaked it and had a bit of inflammation around it, and he was really sore to touch it, but like Pyledriver does on Sunday morning he was 100 per cent sound and bucking and kicking.
"We had him on the walker on Sunday and cantered him on Monday and the vet came back and looked at him and couldn't believe it.
"We could run him on Saturday, and he might win, but the horse has done so much for us, and I just feel if I ran him and he tweaked it there's a good chance he could do some damage, or like all of us if you've got a little niggle somewhere do you put more weight somewhere else and cause a problem?
"This horse has been fantastic to all of us, to the owners, to me, to the yard and to the jockeys that have ridden him, and he doesn't deserve anything to go wrong, so I think it's the right time.
"He's been a fantastic servant, but it isn't just him. I'd be the same if this was a small-time runner at Southwell on a Saturday night. It's just the case that I'm in this game because I love animals, I've worked with horses all my life and we've got to do what's right.
"My mind and my heart are telling me it's the right thing to do at this time."