Fabulous Strike retired to Old Friends

Fabulous Strike, an 8-year-old gelding who won the 2007 Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes as a 4-year-old, has been given to Old Friends, a retirement facility for horses in central Kentucky, according to the farm.

A five-time graded stakes winner, Fabulous Strike was retired in September after winning 15 of 28 starts and earning $1,448,339 for owner/breeder Walter Downey and his Tea Party Stable.

Fabulous Strike sustained an injury in 2009 and received stem-cell therapy during an 18-month rehabilitation. He won his first start after returning from the injury, a six-furlong race in April at Penn National Race Course, but could not match his pre-injury form after that race. He was trained during his career by Todd M. Beattie.

"I'm a small-time breeder, and he was a once-in-a-lifetime horse for me," said Downey, in a release from Old Friends. "After his last start he came back a bit sore, not at all lame, but in the same breath the trainer and I decided it was time to just let him be a horse."