Canford Cliffs retired to stud

Richard Hannon has confirmed his stable star Canford Cliffs has been retired to stud.

The five-time Group One winner came off second best when meeting Frankel in the highly-anticipated 'Duel on the Downs' in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood last week.

Connections have subsequently found the four-year-old to have suffered a minor injury but have decided to call time on his racing career for fear of the problem developing into something more serious.

"He has a bit of a shadow on the joint running into the pastern and that could turn into something nasty - it could turn into a fracture," said Hannon.

Hannon added: "He's a perfectly sound horse and I could very nearly go on training him, but under that light, I don't want to do the horse any damage as he's done us so proud.

"It's a terrible shame - it's heartbreaking, but I don't want to see him end up with a bad injury.

"If we carried on, we would have to give him box rest and with a big horse like him, he'd just get bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier.

"Doing that might just cause him a bad injury and that would break everybody's heart.

"He now goes off to stud sound. If anything happened to him, I couldn't forgive myself.

"He's been a fantastic horse for the yard. He's won five Group Ones - you can't do any more than that."

"Canford Cliffs was a very rare type in that he had such great early speed as a two-year-old but also stretched out to be a superb miler at three and four. He is without doubt the best horse I have had in over 40 years as a trainer.

"It's bitterly disappointing for his owners and for everyone here in East Everleigh that he had to be retired due to injury but at least it does explain why he hung so badly at Goodwood. We were very much looking forward to taking on Frankel again." added the East Everleigh handler.

Canford Cliffs is set to stand at Coolmore Stud in Ireland in accordance with a deal that was finalised at the end of last season.

The agreement meant the powerful operation owned a share in the colt for his racecourse appearances in 2011 and it also secured his services as a stallion.

Coolmore's M.V. Magnier stated "It's very unfortunate that he has been retired as a re-match with Frankel would have been a race to savour but Canford Cliffs is an exceptional looking individual and he joins a select band of stallions to have won 5 or more consecutive Group 1 races.

"Ever since we bought into him last year many of the top breeders in Europe have shown a very keen interest in him so I have no doubt he will be a very popular stallion."