Injury ends Oaks heroine Snow Fairy’s career

Dual Oaks winner Snow Fairy has been retired after aggravating an old tendon injury during a workout on Tuesday morning.

Snow Fairy ridden by Ryan Moore lands the Irish Oaks at the Curragh. Picture: PA

The six-year-old mare was being prepared for a return to action by trainer Ed Dunlop when connections discovered the career-ending problem.

“It is with much sadness that a decision was made this morning to retire Snow Fairy,” the Newmarket handler said in a statement. “Unfortunately after a routine piece of fast work today she was found to have re-injured her near fore tendon, which has caused her problems in the last two years.”

Snow Fairy secured just under £4 million in prize-money in a career which saw her win six Group 1 races across the globe. She was last seen claiming the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September 2012.

Snow Fairy will be sent to Ireland once she has been let down from training to embark upon broodmare duties. She will be covered next year by her owner Cristna Patino’s stallion Elusive Pimpernel. The owner’s racing manager, Patrick Cooper, said: ‘’We’ve had an unbelievable roll. It’s come to an end, but that’s the way it happens. We’ve had some fun along the way.”

Although she showed smart form as a juvenile, it was as a three-year-old that Snow Fairy really made her mark. After completing the English and Irish Oaks double, the filly capped off a momentous 2010 campaign with further Group 1 victories in Hong Kong and Japan.

Her 2011 return was delayed after she suffered the first of what became a string of injury setbacks, but she ran a number of good races in defeat before ending the year with a glorious display in Japan’s Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup.

Snow Fairy came home in front on her return to action last August’s Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville, before being subsequently disqualified after a banned substance was found in a sample. A sixth top-level triumph came as she beat top-class colt Nathaniel in Leopardstown’s Irish Champion Stakes.

Ryan Moore partnered her to five Group 1 victories and, discounting the Deauville disqualification, was unbeaten on her, while Frankie Dettori rode the daughter of Intikhab on her final start at Leopardstown.

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