O’Brien hails brilliant Footsteps
Coolmore announced yesterday that the Giant’s Causeway colt would stand at stud in Australia after connections called time on his unbeaten three-race career due to a foot problem sustained in the wake of his Guineas triumph.
“Footstepsinthesand was a brilliant racehorse and he is by a brilliant sire,” O’Brien said.
“He showed us he was a class horse from day one at Ballydoyle.
“His instant acceleration and his great attitude to work made him very special.
“Once he was asked to quicken the race was over.”
A niggling problem with the foot he bruised on the very fast ground at Newmarket forced Footstepsinthesand’s premature retirement.
Although nothing major, the injury requires rest, which would rule him out of the summer’s major mile events.
Footstepsinthesand’s one and a quarter length win over Rebel Rebel at Newmarket was a first major win for the high-profile partnership of O’Brien and jockey Kieren Fallon.
And the win meant he had gone one better than his sire (Giant’s Causeway), as the ‘Iron Horse’ met with one of his few defeats in an extraordinary career on the Rowley Mile.
It had been hoped that he would follow up in the Irish equivalent, but his foot injury ruled him out.
Useful miler Antonius Pius has also been retired to Coolmore’s Australian outfit after disappointing when last in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at the Royal meeting last week.
Antonius Pius was more famed for his sometimes-quirky antics on the track rather than any big-race successes, but he was nevertheless a talented performer.
The Danzig colt may well have won last year’s French 2000 Guineas had he not swerved into the rails in the final furlong, while he was a narrow runner-up to Singletary in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Antonius Pius had two starts this season, finishing last of eight in the Lockinge Stakes before his below-par effort at York.
