French Guineas winner retired

Silver Frost, winner of the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) in May, has been retired after suffering a hairline fracture to his left hind leg. An Irish-bred son of Verglas trained by Yves de Nicolay, Silver Frost follows Le Havre, winner of the Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) as the second French classic winner of 2009 to be retired prematurely.

As a 2-year-old, Silver Frost won the six-furlong, Group 3 Prix de Cabourg and the one-mile, Group 3 Prix Thomas Bryon and was third in the one-mile, Group 1 Criterium International. His French Guineas triumph, in which Le Havre finished second, capped a three-race winning streak that included the listed Prix Omnium II and the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau, all three of those races at a mile. Since then, he finished sixth behind Le Havre in the French Derby and sixth to Goldikova in the Prix Jacques le Marois.

All told, Silver Frost won 6 of 11 career starts for earnings of $579,161. A decision on where he will stand at stud has not yet been made.