Gold Cup Winner Sizing John Retired

2017 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John has been retired by his trainer Jessica Harrington after the three time Grade One winner suffered another injury on the gallops in his preparation to return to the track on Sunday at Listowel.

The 10 year old gelding owned by the well known pots family has only been seen once on a racecourse since being pulled up in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown at the back end of the 2017 season.

It was in that year that Sizing John became one of he greats of the sport landing the Gold Cup Trio when he went on to win the Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown Gold Cup consecutively.

Having finished second behind behind Douvan for most of his career, Harrington stepped him up in trip and that move made him a horse to remember for a lifetime and his trainer was ready to give him another go this season.

The trainer has had to be exceptionally patient with the gelding, with injury after injury halting his progress on the national hunt scene over the last three years which has seen him miss the last three Cheltenham festivals and unfortunately he will never be seen on a racecourse again.

(Credit RacingTV) “He has been retired. Unfortunately, he gave himself an injury this morning,” Harrington said.

“It’s not life-threatening, but he won’t be able to run on Sunday. He did his last gallop and it just went wrong after that, so sadly we’ve decided we’ve had enough comebacks with him and we’re going to retire him now and he can have a happy retirement.

“He ran on New Year’s Eve and unfortunately fell and hurt himself. I thought I’d get him back, then I didn’t, and we were right back on track and Robert (Power) was absolutely thrilled with him. I felt very sad this morning ringing up the Potts family to say finally we have to retire him.”

Sizing John won nine of his 21 races and amassed £776,806 in total prize money.