Racing

Five-time Group One winner Sole Power retired

Eddie Lynam: ‘He was a great horse, but time waits for no man and he’s been retired’

Sole Power (R) en-route to victory at the Curragh in 2015.

Thu Mar 2 2017 - 11:29

Multiple Group One-winning sprinter Sole Power has been retired, his trainer Eddie Lynam has announced.

The 10-year-old has run three times at this year’s Dubai Carnival, most recently finishing sixth in the Meydan Sprint two weeks ago, but Lynam has decided the time is right to bring his stable stalwart’s brilliant career to an end.

He tsaid “We’ve decided to call it a day with him.

“He was a great horse, but time waits for no man and he’s been retired.

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“Now we’ve announced the news it is only now it really hits home.”

Sole Power burst on to the scene when he ran out a shock 100-1 winner of the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in 2010.

He went on to prove that effort was far from a fluke, landing consecutive renewals of the King's Stand at Royal Ascot in 2013-14 before regaining his Nunthorpe crown three years ago.

Sole Power’s fifth and final Group One success came in the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan in 2015.

Sole Power won 12 of his 65 starts and was placed on a further 14 occasions.

He heads into retirement having earned over £2million in prize-money.

Lynam added: “He’s been a wonderful horse and he’s going out on his own term as he’s totally sound.

“His form up to 2015 had been at a very high level, but his form has dipped in recent years as, like all of us, he’s got slower as he’s got older.

“I’ve never trained a more genuine, happier and sounder horse than Sole Power.

“I’ve been training since I was 21 and I’m 55 now. I was a nobody until he came around and he’s taken me to places I never felt were possible to go to.

“His CV was always strong, but, on top of that, he was a really popular horse.”

Sole Power will spend his retirement years at Horse Park Stud in Ashford, County Wicklow.

Lynam said: “He’ll have a few months at home to chill and then he’ll head over to Horse Park Stud, where a lot of our retired horses go.

“Putting him on the horsebox that one last time, that will be the saddest day.”

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