Cavalryman (right): suffered a fatal injury during racing on Saturday

 PICTURE: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

GODOLPHIN’S veteran stayer Cavalryman, a multiple Group-race winner, has died after suffering a fracture during racing at Meydan on Saturday.

Cavalryman suffered a fracture in his right hind leg while running in the Nad Al Sheba Trophy and was later put down.

A popular, versatile and talented horse, Cavalryman ran 39 times during a career which spanned seven years, making him one of the only horses still running to have faced greats of the last decade such as Sea The Stars.

Cavalryman finished third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2009, behind Sea The Stars, having earlier in the same season won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris.

Although that was to be Cavalryman’s sole Group 1 win and the peak of his middle-distance career, he later emerged as a successful stayer, ending almost three frustrating years without a victory with a Listed double in 2012.

Among the most notable prizes of his late-career resurgence, Cavalryman won the Group 3 Dubai Gold Cup on World Cup night in 2013, and last season landed a brace of Group 2s in Britain – the Princess of Wales’s at Newmarket and the Goodwood Cup at Glorious Goodwood.

Speaking to Godolphin’s official website, trainer Saeed Bin Suroor said: “He was a real character in the yard and was treasured, not only by me, but by everyone here – all of the team; we are very upset by the tragic news. He had a wonderful career and he will be hugely missed.”

fonte : RacingPost