Dual Group 1 Winner Limato Retired

Limato IRE), one of flat racing's most popular and durable performers, will begin a new chapter of his life next week after owner Paul Jacobs decided the time had come to bring down the curtain on the veteran's tremendous racing career.

The dual group 1 winner will soon move from his long-time home with Henry Candy to join Katie Jerram's acclaimed showing stable in Essex, where the 8-year-old son of Tagula will join an academy that has previously retrained top chasers Cue Card and Barbers Shop.

Among many marvelous achievements, Limato won at least one black-type feature every year over seven consecutive seasons, his final success coming with a typically impressive 3 1/2-length romp in Newmarket's Criterion Stakes in June.

His two biggest victories came with similarly decisive wins in the 2016 Darley July Cup (G1) and Qatar Prix de la Foret (G1), on both occasions under Harry Bentley, his most regular winning rider.

"He has been an incredible horse," said Jacobs. "He won 14 of his 33 races, he won two group 1s, three group 2s, three group 3s and four Listed races. He has been a horse of not just one lifetime but quite a few lifetimes—and the people involved with him have been spectacular as well."

Jacobs—who named Limato after his wife, Linda, mother, Marjorie, and father, Tom, added: "I have been conscious for a year or two that I needed to plan for his future. What has brought the decision to a head is that this year he will only have been able to run twice. That's nothing to do with Covid-19 but the state of the ground. 

"Friday's Challenge Stakes was always going to be his swansong but on Monday he pulled out slightly lame. It would have been so tight to get him to Newmarket and the ground is soft there anyway, so we brought forward his retirement."

Both Jacobs and Candy paid tribute to the work of Limato's long-serving groom Anil Chavan, while the trainer reflected on some of the most memorable efforts of a horse who was gelded before he ever raced and then won his first five outings.

"He was fantastic on his day, absolutely brilliant," said Candy. "For me, his most extraordinary performance came in the Two-Year-Old Trophy at Redcar, where he never came off the bridle to win. That was pretty stunning. He was also very impressive in this year's Criterion Stakes, after which I thought he would have a great season.

"He has been a stable star for years and years. He treated every day as if it was his first day in training. He was a real enthusiast who always went up the gallops as though he had never done it before, even though he had been doing it for seven years. He has been a joy to train."

A Star for So Long

As Limato galloped away and clear of his rivals at Newmarket in June to record his eighth group-race success, commentator David Fitzgerald summed him up perfectly. 

"What a horse he has been—and what a horse he still is," said Fitzgerald.

What a horse indeed.

Given he has been around for so long, it is easy to forget the brilliance of Limato in his pomp. It is no wonder Henry Candy so fondly remembers Redcar's 2-Year-Old Trophy, for his stable star beat a huge field without Graham Lee having to move a muscle. On that day, and on so many other days, the young boy who became an old boy positively oozed class.

As well as classy he was quick, not least when second in the 2016 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (G1). When smashing the 2016 July Cup and Prix de la Foret fields under Harry Bentley—who once compared him to a Rolls Royce—Limato produced a searing change of speed. Those wins earned him Racing Post Ratings of 124 and 126, both exceptionally high numbers. As a comparison, Sunday's Arc hero Sottsass was retired Oct. 5 after claiming a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) in which he hit 123.

For Limato, once good enough to be sent off the favorite for the 2016 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T)—he was past his best for the campaign and finished sixth—there will be no stallion duties. However, it was because he is a gelding that we have been able to enjoy him so long.

Soft ground all too often caused him to miss intended targets, yet he still managed to take group or listed honors for seven consecutive years, most recently on that afternoon at Newmarket in June when for the umpteenth time he routed a smart field.

It was a reminder of what Limato could still do—and what Limato had done for so long.