2,000 Guineas winner Kameko© Photo Healy Racing
Qipco 2000 Guineas winner Kameko will be retired to stand at Tweenhills Stud, home of the Qatar Racing stallions, at the end of the season.
The Andrew Balding-trained three-year-old, the fastest ever winner of the colts’ Classic at Newmarket, will have his swansong on the track in the Breeders’ Cup in Keeneland.
Kameko won the Group One Vertem Futurity Trophy at Newcastle as a two-year-old and gave weight and a beating to older horses in the Group Two Joel Stakes on his latest start.
Balding said: “Kameko is without doubt the best horse I’ve trained. He has all the attributes of a top-class miler and is a striking horse to look at. I feel very honoured to have had the opportunity to train a horse of such class.”
Kameko was a first British Classic winner for jockey Oisin Murphy, who said: “I felt from the very beginning that this could be a special horse.
“He’s the perfect model — he has size, durability and a great character. To ride, he has super balance, a great turn of foot and a good mind — you can put him anywhere in a race. He’s a machine.”
Sheikh Fahad Al-Thani, chairman of Qatar Racing, said: “My brothers and I are delighted to own another superstar in Kameko, whose record-breaking two and three-year-old campaigns will live long in our memory. We cannot wait to unveil him to breeders.”
