27 October 2023 , 16:23
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Champion miler Paddington will not run at the Breeders’ Cup after spiking a temperature.
The three-year-old was due to be part of the powerful team trainer Aidan O’Brien was taking to Santa Anita, California next week.
But owners Coolmore announced on Friday that the three-year-old colt will not travel this weekend robbing Europe of one of its biggest hopes of victory in the £1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Mile. He was immediately retired and will take up stallion duties a Coolmore Stud
Paddington won his first six races this season, including four in a row at Group 1 level. He began his Group 1-winning sequence in the Irish 2,000 Guineas quickly followed by the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
He earned comparisons with the great Giant’s Causeway, nicknamed ‘the Iron Horse', when stepping up in distance to win the Eclipse Stakes and then returned to 1m to capture the Sussex Stakes.
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The sequence was brought to a halt at York when Paddington finished third behind Mostahdaf and Nashwa in the Juddmonte International and he was well beaten on his return in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes last weekend.
O’Brien said:“To do what he did takes a very special horse.In terms of his attitude and determination he was very similar to Giant’s Causeway but Paddington was a much quicker horse.
“He had great tactical speed but could quicken off it. He’s an unbelievable specimen who stands over an incredible amount of ground. He got physically stronger and heavier from race to race which is a very unusual thing in a thoroughbred.”