Sprint Cup hero Minzaal retired due to injury

Saturday’s hugely impressive Haydock Sprint Cup winner Minzaal has been retired due to injury.

The Owen Burrows-trained four-year-old sustained a slab fracture when landing the first Group One of his career on quick ground.

Whether he would have stayed in training next season had still to be decided, but connections had hoped he would head to Ascot for Champions Day and the Champions Sprint, a race in which he finished third last year on just his second outing of the campaign.

Having won the Gimcrack at two before missing the majority of his three-year-old season, he also won the Hackwood Stakes this term and finished second to Highfield Princess in the Prix Maurice de Gheest.

The news is a blow to Burrows, who earlier this season won his first Group One with Hukum at Epsom, only for the horse to sustain a season-ending injury in the process.

Owner Shadwell Estate’s racing manager Angus Gold confirmed Minzaal would not run again and said: “I’m afraid it’s not very good news.

“I’m sad to say he’s got a slab fracture in his knee so he is finished, very sadly.

“He’ll be retiring unfortunately. We were keen to get him to Ascot which was always the plan as we always thought he handled easy ground, but sadly the gods decided it wasn’t to be.

“At least he went out in a blaze of glory, he’s a Group One winner and showed everybody what he was capable of.

“It’s such a shame for Owen, extraordinary given what happened with Hukum, too, but there you go.

“He showed his true colours and he was a proper Group One horse. Hopefully he will have a good second career.”