The European racing world was rocked on Saturday with the shock announcement that Epsom Derby winner Pour Moi has been retired after suffering a serious injury in training.
Having provided French training maestro Andre Fabre with his first winner of the world’s premier classic, he has been rested since with the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe his main target but he will miss France’s biggest race, for which he was favourite and will not race again.
A three-year-old son of Montjeu, Pour Moi will join his sire at Coolmore Stud in Ireland according to a spokesman for the Irish farm who confirmed that Pour Moi had “suffered a severe overreach to his near-fore fetlock during routine exercise on Friday morning and will not race again but retire to Coolmore for the 2012 covering season”.
His enforced absence leaves the likes of 2010 winner Workforce, 2011 King George winner Nathaniel and the Aidan O’Brien-trained So You Think vying for favouritism.
Meanwhile, jockey Richard Hughes was seen at his very best in the Group 2 Celebration Mile on rain-softened ground at Goodwood, which he won on Dubawi Gold for his father-in-law Richard Hannon.
The only three-year-old among the seven runners, the son of Dubawi was settled in last by Hughes who tracked Frankie Dettori and favourite Poet’s Voice through two furlongs out.
However, Dettori stalled, leaving Hughes, momentarily, with nowhere to go but the jockey changed his path of attack and stormed home to catch Set The Trend in the closing stages.
Runner-up in both the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Irish equivalent, when Hughes was criticised for leaving his challenge too late, it was a deserved big race win for Dubawi Gold.
Earlier, Dettori was denied by the narrowest of margins in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes, a 7f contest for juvenile fillies, when the Mahmood Al Zarooni-trained Rakasa was headed right on the line by Jimmy Fortune on Regal Realm.
