Coolmore Stud has retired classic winner Camelot to its Irish headquarters for the 2014 breeding season.

Camelot (4c Montjeu – Tarfah by Kingmambo) won the Racing Post 2YO Trophy and became the first colt since Nijinsky to win the English 2000 Guineas plus the English & Irish Derby.

After an unplaced finish in the 2012 Arc de Triomphe, Camelot developed a serious case of colic which required emergency surgery.  He returned to action this term to win the G3 Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh and was being set for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita before pulling up lame on Monday morning.

“From the very first time we saw him at the sales we just loved him,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said.  “He was the perfect racehorse, a beautiful horse with a terrific action.  Speed, class and a super-intelligent horse to go with it – he had it all.”

Camelot (GB) cost 525,000 guineas from Highclere Stud at the 2010 Tattersalls October yearling sale and he retires after winning 6 times in 10 starts for earnings of 1.92 million pounds.

A son of Sadler’s Wells champion Montjeu, he is held in high regard by Coolmore Stud supremo John Magnier.  “We are looking for the next Sadler’s Wells,” Magnier said last year.  “This horse has been tested all the way through at two and three and he’s battled on hard and soft footing.  You have to have all those qualities and Sadler’s Wells did all those things, too.”

Camelot is a son of G3 Dahlia Stakes winner Tarfah and Australian broodmare owners can expect to see him shuttling out here in the not too distant future.

CAMELOT