Shamardal retired due to injury

Shamardal has suffered a bonechip in his right fore ankle and has been retired on the eve of what would have been a monumental clash with Motivator in Saturday's Eclipse Stakes.

Last year's European champion 2-year-old had won a pair of classics this season for Godolphin and was half the attraction expected to draw a capacity crowd of 30,000 at Sandown Park for a duel of Derby winners with Motivator. Shamardal suffered the injury on Thursday morning during a canter at Newmarket but it was not discovered until later that day at evening feeding. Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford described the injury as an osteochondral fracture fragment to his right front fetlock.

Shamardal's only loss in seven career starts came in his lone try on dirt when he finished a distant ninth in the UAE Derby on March 26. Tragically, his Godolphin stablemate Blues And Royals, the 12-length winner of that race, had to be euthanized last month.

A son Giant's Causeway, Shamardal earned his juvenile championship honors by dint of his victory in the 7-furlong Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes. After his disappointing effort in Dubai he reeled off three straight Group 1 tallies in the one-mile French 2000 Guineas, the 1 5/16-mile French Derby and the one-mile St. James's Palace Stakes. Bred in Kentucky by Brilliant Stable and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, he leaves the scene with lifetime earnings of $1,931,770.