Two-time Group 1 winner Delicacy has been retired from racing after scans found that she had torn town tendons in her front legs following her tough victory in the 2016 Perth Cup at Ascot on Saturday.
Delicacy finished her career with a string of feature race wins including Group 1 victories in the Australasian Oaks and South Australian Derby. Photo by: Jenny Barnes
Delicacy confirmed her status as one of the most talented horses in the country when she carried 59 kilograms to win the Group 2 Perth Cup (2400m) and she was set to head to Melbourne for the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 12, but owner Bob Peters revealed yesterday that the four-year-old had pulled up extremely sore after the race and would be sent for scans.
The scans came back this afternoon and Peters informed The West Australian that Delicacy would never race again.
“She will be retired,” Peters said
“She has two torn tendons.
“It’s as bad as it gets.”
Peters’ main focus is to now nurture Delicacy back to full health and he is hopeful that the daughter of Al Maher will be able to serve as a broodmare once she is completely recovered from her injuries.
Delicacy was named Champion Australian Three-Year-Old Filly at the Australian Racing Awards last year and she is one of the most talented horses to come out of Western Australia in recent years.
Racing Victoria Chief Handicapper Greg Carpenter awarded Delicacy a rating figure of 113 after she took out both the Group 1 Australasian Oaks (2000m) and Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m), but he told Racing Ahead that the star mare may have improved that figure in the Perth Cup.
“I think that she has at least run to the 113 that she achieved at Adelaide,” Carpenter said.
“Real Love who ran third in the race carrying 57 kilos would come out of the race as the second highest performer and I had her running to 108 when she won the Perth Cup last year.
“If she has run to 108 again and Delicacy has given her two kilos, which makes her 112, and then the margin of two lengths at 2400 is three.
“Delicacy has mathematically through Real Love has run to 115.
“There is a case for Delicacy to have run to 115 and given that she carried that weight I think she deserves a figure of 115.”
Delicacy finished her career with 12 wins from 19 race starts and she accumulated over $2 million in prizemoney for connections.
