Dullahan retired due to tendon injury

Dullahan, a multiple Grade 1 winner and half brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, has been retired from racing due to a tendon injury.

The 4-year-old Even the Score colt will be shipped to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., where he will rehab from his injury under the guidance of farm trainer Richard Budge. He will be available for inspection at the farm as stud plans are determined in the coming weeks.

A $250,000 purchase at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale by owner Jerry Crawford and Donegal Racing, Dullahan broke his maiden in his fifth start, the Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland Race Course. He concluded his juvenile campaign with a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

At 3, Dullahan returned to the scene of his maiden win to clinch his place in the 2012 Kentucky Derby, taking the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. He then finished a late-closing third in that year’s Kentucky Derby to I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister.

The colt picked up arguably his biggest victory in the summer of his sophomore season, beating older rivals in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar. He set a new track record in that race, covering 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.54 over Del Mar’s all-weather Polytrack surface.

Dullahan was sent to Dubai in early 2013 to compete in the Dubai World Cup, and then returned to the races in North America during the summer, finishing third in his comeback effort, the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap at Arlington Park. He finished eighth in the Pacific Classic in his final start.

Dullahan retires with three wins in 18 career starts – with all three of those wins coming in Grade 1 races – for earnings of $1,735,901. He was trained by Dale Romans.

“Dullahan is the most spectacular-looking horse Donegal has ever campaigned and that takes in some territory,” said Crawford, managing partner of Donegal Racing. “Not many horses win three Grade 1s for their owners but that is what Dullahan did.

“In my eyes he is from a similar mode of stallions like Tiznow, Candy Ride, Indian Charlie, or Harlan’s Holiday as all of them were great race horses whose sires weren’t perceived to be commercial at the time of their retirement,” he continued. “We believe that Dullahan has many attributes equipped to make him an excellent sire.”

Bred in Kentucky by Phil Needham, Judy Needham, and Bena Halecky, Dullahan is out of the unraced Smart Strike mare Mining My Own, whose three winners from four foals to race include the aforementioned Mine That Bird, a Canadian champion. He is also a half-brother to stakes winner Brother Bird.