Racing

Magical will miss the Breeders Cup and has been retired

She had been one of the market leaders for the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare on Saturday

Magical, ridden by Donnacha O’Brien, wins the Champion Stakes at Ascot earlier this month. Photograph: Simon Cooper/PA

Brian O'Connor's face
Brian O'Connor
Mon Oct 28 2019 - 18:05

Magical, the filly described as the "ultimate racehorse" by trainer Aidan O'Brien after her Champion Stakes victory at Ascot earlier this month, will miss the Breeders Cup and has been retired.

The four year old star had been one of the market leaders for the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare on Saturday but spiked a temperature after her last workout at Ballydoyle on Monday.

“Fifteen minutes after she had done her work this morning, her temperature was slightly raised. She was due to go at 9.30 and her temperature was taken at 9.15

“We didn’t want to travel her because when she goes over there, she’d have to go into quarantine. If she did develop anything travelling over, then that would have locked up quarantine.

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“We didn’t want to risk her, especially after a long season and on a long journey. Before they travel we always want their temperatures to be 100 percent,” O’Brien reported.

Magical won three Group One races this year, adding the English Champion to the Irish Champion and the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May.

She was also a top-flight winner in 2018 but her career was inextricably linked to the dual-Arc heroine Enable.

Magical was runner up to Enable in last year’s Breeders Cup Turf, as well as this season’s Eclipse and Yorkshire Oaks.

O’Brien confirmed the filly will visit the stallion No Nay Never in 2020 to begin her new career at stud.

“She’s been an unbelievable mare, something you’d never dream of. She ran in top class races at two, three and four and showed that she was better than ever towards the end.

“To win an Irish Champion Stakes, then run in the Arc and come back to win the English Champion Stakes is unprecedented. Horses have won both before, but I don’t think they have done it and run in the Arc in between,” he said.

Aidan O Brien