Richard Hannon greeted Rosallion as “a horse of a lifetime” after the trainer said the three-time Group 1 winner had retired.
Owned and bred by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, Rosallion’s best moment came in the St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot last year, where he defeated Henry Longfellow And Remarkable speech winners of the 2023 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes (G1) and the 2024 English Two Thousand Guineas (G1) respectively.
Rosallion claimed his first Group 1 as a 2-year-old in 2023 when he landed the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) at Arc Day under jockey Sean Levey, who rode him in all 13 of his starts, and also won Ireland’s Two Thousand Guineas (G1) from stablemate Hatem last year.
Speaking in Newbury on October 25, Hannon said: “He was the horse of my life and the best I have ever worked with. This season has been so terribly unfortunate, but when you have a horse like that, life revolves around them. You miss those horses when they are not there, but it makes you strive to find another horse. He was exceptional to watch and to work with.”
“His racing career will take a lot of blows, but I imagine he will be even better as a stallion. Hopefully they don’t remember him this year, even though he is the best mile-eater around and what he has done in some of his races is astronomical.
“When you see him standing there he looks like a superman. His temperament is too good and he won the St James’s Palace, the Irish Guineas and the Lagardere in record-breaking fashion. He was exceptional.”
Docklands in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1), while also being beaten by a neck by a shot of 150-1 Qirat in the Sussex Stakes (G1) at Glorious Goodwood and a close head second Simple in the Prix du Moulin (G1).
Rosallion retires as the winner of five of his thirteen starts with a further six placed efforts. In total, he earned £1,638,294 in prize money for wins and places during his career.
The 4 year old son of Blue Dot will be part of the Darley stallion band, with price and location to be announced in the coming days.
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