Desert Party retired with soft tissue injury

Barbara D. Livingston

Desert Party will stand at stud at Jonabell Farm in Kentucky in 2011.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Desert Party, the multiple graded-stakes-winning colt owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Godolphin Stable, has been retired from racing after developing a soft tissue injury, trainer Saeed bin Suroor said Thursday.

 “He can’t make it back this year,” bin Suroor said. “He will retire. He will go to Darley, Jonabell Farm. We look forward to seeing him do well in his stud career.”

A son of Street Cry, Desert Party was purchased for $2.1 million at the Fasig-Tipton sale of select 2-year-olds at Calder in February of 2008. Later that year, he won the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, when trained by Eoin Harty and racing for Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable.
In 2009, at 3, Desert Party won an allowance race and the Group 3 2000 Guineas at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai. He returned to the U.S. where he finished 14th in the Kentucky Derby, from which he emerged with a chip in his left front ankle that needed to be surgically removed.

He returned to the races at 4 in Dubai where he won the Group 3 Mahab Al Shimaal over Meydan’s synthetic surface before finishing 11th in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile. He made a successful return to North America when he won the $200,000 Don LeVine Memorial Handicap at Philadelphia Park on June 26.

“I always liked this horse, he always showed class, I thought this year he’d be ready to win a Group 1,” bin Suroor said. “Everything was good, he was in good form. When he won last time, he was very good. Sadly, the horse got injured and it came now at the end of the season where he is not going to make it back this year so we decided to retire him.”

Desert Party retires with a record of 6 wins from 10 starts and earnings of $928,467.