O’Brien confirms Magical retirement

Aidan O’Brien has confirmed that Magical has been retired from racing after being withdrawn from this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup. The four-year-old had been pencilled in to feature in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Saturday. However, Magical, who had already claimed wins in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and the Champion Stakes at Ascot, had a spike in temperature ahead of boarding the flight to the United States on Monday. The filly has subsequently not travelled to California, while O’Brien revealed her racing career is over with a record of nine wins in 21 outings. He said: “We didn’t want to travel her because when she goes over there, she’d have to go into quarantine. If she did develop anything travelling over, then that would have locked up quarantine. “We didn’t want to risk her, especially after a long season and on a long journey. Before they travel we always want their temperatures to be 100 percent.” O’Brien added that Magical will now be covered by Coolmore stallion No Nay Never next year.