Stradivarius, Frankie Dettori's legendary mount who won at York and Doncaster, is retired to stud

The John and Thady Gosden-trained chestnut enjoyed the final victory of his career on the Knavesmire in May, when taking the third Yorkshire Cup of his career under Frankie Dettori.

Unbeaten at the North Yorkshire track, the eight-year-old also briefly became the joint-winningmost horse at York. He also won three Lonsdale Cups and it was while preparing for that race at this year’s Ebor Festival he was found to have a bruised foot on the morning of the race and was withdrawn.

In addition, the son of Sea The Stars also won two Doncaster Cups at Town Moor, again missing this year’s renewal, and also won seven Group 1s in the shape of three Gold Cups at Ascot and four Goodwood Cups.

Before his injury, the popular horse had twice finished behind Aidan O'Brien's Kyprios - a horse half his age and the new king of the stayers - in the Gold Cup and at Goodwood.

Owned by Bjorn Nielsen, he will now join the National Stud as a stallion.

He retires having won 20 of his 35 outings in total, earning almost £3.5million in prize money.

"He has been trotting and cantering but it has taken longer to get over the bruised foot than we thought," Nielsen told the Racing Post.

"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.

"It has been a fairytale from start to finish. Until this setback he had never been medicated and had never missed an engagement through injury."

Nielsen reports the problem to have taken longer than anticipated to resolve and after consultation with Gosden senior, opted to retire his charge.

He told Nick Luck's Daily Podcast: "He took slightly longer to get over that foot bruising that he had when he was withdrawn on the morning of the Lonsdale.

"He's had a fabulous career, he's never - pardon the pun - put a foot wrong. He went out there beaten a neck at Goodwood. He ran a great race and he's gone out at the top.

"I never wanted to see this horse finish running in fifth or sixth somewhere in a race next year, I'd much prefer to see him go out on a high."

His career spanned seven seasons and Nielsen thinks that fortitude is a key trait Stradivarius can pass on to his progeny.

He added: "His soundness has been one of his great assets. Having a sound horse is half the battle really, a horse that you can train and he's certainly been that throughout. His tremendous will to win, his presence and he actually is a very fast horse.

"His times over the last two or three furlongs on all those big race days is very often the fastest of the day. He runs fast times and has a great ability to quicken, so I think all those things are attributes that any breeder would want to breed to. Hopefully he is going to get the support he deserves."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​