Top sprinter Shancelot retired

Top-level dirt sprinter Shancelot has been retired after coming out of a Monday workout with a soft-tissue injury, trainer Steve Asmussen said.

Shancelot was being aimed toward the Saudi Sprint in late February, but instead is retired without making a start since the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. There, still trained by Jorge Navarro, he finished second to Mitole, trained by Asmussen. Asmussen took over Shancelot’s training last summer and had him working toward a comeback race when a setback sent him to the sidelines. Shancelot had worked steadily at Fair Grounds since early December before suffering this latest injury.

Shancelot’s major win came in the 2019 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga, where he won by more than 12 lengths over second-place Nitrous, also, coincidentally, trained by Asmussen. He earned an extraordinary 121 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, the highest figure of the year by a considerable amount.

Shancelot regressed while racing against a bias finishing third in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens and was second by a head to Omaha Beach in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship before his final start in the BC Sprint.

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In March 2020, Navarro was one of two well-known trainers, along with Jason Servis, arrested and indicted on federal charges related to the acquisition and administration of performance-enhancing drugs.

Shancelot, a 5-year-old horse owned by Crawford Racing, is by Shanghai Bobby out of True Kiss, by Is It True. As of Thursday, he remained at Asmussen’s barn at Fair Grounds. Asmussen said no plans for standing Shancelot at stud had been formulated.