'Special' Muhaarar heads for retirement after Champions Day victory

Charlie Hills hailed Muhaarar "the best I've trained" after his sprinting superstar made a case for being ranked right among the very best in the division in recent years with a scintillating display at Ascot on Saturday.

Considered a Classic prospect at the start of the year and a luckless eighth in the French 2000 Guineas, the three-year-old was a brilliant winner of the inaugural Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and has dominated since.

Further Group One victories in the July Cup at Newmarket and the Prix Maurice de Gheest confirmed his status as Europe's best sprinter and he looked better than ever in the British Champions Sprint. His retirement has now been confirmed.

Hills said: "He's perfect this morning. He only lost five kilos and has taken the race really well.

"He has just started to go in his coat a little bit and he actually looks a little more hairy this morning than he did yesterday. It has been a long year for him, having had his first run in April.

"It has taken time for him to get that sprinting mentality. We spent a lot of time trying to get him to settle and trying to help him get a mile and then coming back to six furlongs, they have to learn to sprint.

"He's a pretty special horse. He has the right attitude, a wonderful temperament and everything you need in a racehorse really.

"That's pretty much him done now. I think he'll be going to stud shortly and there'll be a string of mares waiting for him I'm sure.

"Our job is to try and find another one like him now, which won't be easy.

"It's not easy to find good horses and he's the best I've trained, without a shadow of a doubt."

Angus Gold, racing manager for owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, believes Muhaarar should be regarded as one of the sprinting greats.

"He was fantastic yesterday and we are enormously lucky to be associated with such a brilliant horse," said Gold.

"To me, that was his best performance and what a fantastic way to go out, showing off his talent on the world stage.

"The horse has a brilliant mind and constitution, but a huge amount of credit has to go to Charlie and his team for keeping him in such good shape for so long.

"That's definitely it now and he's going to become a very important part of Sheikh Hamdan's breeding operation.

"A lot of people are comparing him to Dayjur (three-time Group One winner for the owner in 1990), but they are very different horses.

"Dayjur was a 'blitz 'em' horse, while I don't really think Muhaarar is an out-and-out sprinter.

"That might sound strange for a horse that's won four Group Ones over six furlongs, but physically he's not built like a sprinter and I think he just has an enormous amount of class.

"You don't get many really top-class sprinters in this part of the world - Dayjur and Oasis Dream are two - and I think he deserves to be mentioned alongside them now."