St Nicholas Abbey has suffered a "serious career-ending injury"
St Nicholas Abbey will undergo surgery on a fractured pastern on Wednesday as connections hope to save his stud career.
Last Updated: 24/07/13 10:19am
The six-times Group One winner suffered the injury during a routine gallop at Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stable on Tuesday morning as he continued his preparations for Saturday's King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot.
With his racing career now over due to his serious injury, owners John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith are hopeful their vets can save him for a stud career.
Coolmore tweeted: "St Nicholas Abbey suffered a fractured pastern during a routine piece of work at Ballydoyle this morning.
"He is currently in a comfortable condition at Fethard Equine Hospital, where he is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning."
News of his injury broke just after 9am, when it was confirmed his racing days are over.
A tweet read: "St Nicholas Abbey suffered a serious career ending injury at Ballydoyle this morning, vets are currently attending to him. We hope to save him for a career at stud."
A son of champion sire Montjeu, St Nicholas Abbey was champion two-year-old in 2009 when he crowned his season with a blistering display in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.
He was a red-hot favourite for the 2000 Guineas the following year, but could only finish sixth behind Makfi, and was not seen again until the following April when he was beaten at the Curragh.
He returned to something like his juvenile form when an easy winner of the Ormonde Stakes at Chester and went on to further Group One glory in the Coronation Cup at Epsom, a race he went on to win twice more.
Arguably his two greatest successes came on the world stage, however.
He won the Breeders' Cup Turf in 2011, a victory which made his jockey Joseph O'Brien the youngest winner in Breeders' Cup history, and as recently as March he landed the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan.
St Nicholas Abbey amassed close to £5million in win and place prize money having won nine of his 21 races.