Snow Fairy, international Group 1 winner, retired

Snow Fairy, a Group 1 winner in four countries, has been retired after re-aggravating a tendon injury, Racing Post reports.

The 6-year-old Intikhab mare re-aggravated the old injury, which had nagged her for the past two years, following a routine workout Tuesday morning, trainer Ed Dunlop said. She will be sent into broodmare duty in Ireland, and is scheduled to be bred to Elusive Pimpernel in 2014.

Snow Fairy won eight of 21 career starts over four seasons of racing for earnings of $6,340,956. She made an impact on every point of the map she visited, winning six Group 1 races, including the Epsom Oaks in England; the Irish Oaks and Irish Champion Stakes in Ireland; the 2010 and 2011 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup in Japan; and the Hong Kong Cup.

The only country in which Snow Fairy competed where she did not win a Group 1 was France, where she finished third in the 2011 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. She placed in four other Group 1 stakes during her career.

"Most owners would have retired her a lot sooner than she did and if this had been the case she would not have won the Irish Champion Stakes last year, which was without doubt her greatest performance,” Dunlop said. "I would also like to thank all of my staff who have looked after her, ridden her and travelled her around the world. She remains the only international horse to have won two Group 1s in Japan."

Bred in Ireland by Cristina Patino’s Windflower Overseas Holdings, Snow Fairy was purchased as a yearling by BBA (Ireland) for a modest $2,467, Patino bought her back and campaigned Snow Fairy under the banner of her stable, Anamoine, Ltd.

Snow Fairy is the only foal out of the winning Charnwood Forest mare Woodland Dream.