上屆凱旋門賞霸者，鐵路聯線，因傷退役。
Link retired after tendon strain
by Rodney Masters
RACING lost one of its star players on Wednesday when the brilliant Rail Link was retired after sustaining a second injury
since his winning sequence last season culminated in victory in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
A chipped joint kept the Andre Fabre-trained colt off the racecourse in the first half of this year,
and just as connections started to plan a revised campaign intended to lead to a second Arc,
for which he was as short as 5-1 on Wednesday with William Hill and Coral, he was struck down by a tendon strain.
While stallion arrangements have yet to be organised because owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah is away,
it will be anticipated that Rail Link will replace the recently deceased Rainbow Quest at Banstead Manor Stud.
Rainbow Quest, acclaimed as the most successful of stallions based in Britain in recent years,
died last week following surgery, aged 26.
Confirming the tendon injury on Wednesday, Teddy Grimthorpe said the colt would not race again.
”It's a shame because Rail Link's form was outstanding. Apart from winning a particularly high class Arc,
the form of his other wins was very strong, with many of the horses he beat,
including Red Rocks, Youmzain, Pride and Deep Impact, going on to win their Group 1s.
A decision over his future will be announced shortly.”
On his first two starts of his career, Rail Link gave no clue of the glories ahead.
He unseated his jockey after clipping heels on his debut, the finished runner-up at Chantilly.
However, with a maiden at Saint-Cloud in May, he launched a sequence of five straight wins that was,
in order, to include the Group 3 Prix du Lys, Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris,
and Group 2 Prix Niel Casino Barriere, prior to his strike in the Arc, where he proveda neck too strong for Pride.
In all the son of Dansili won five of his seven starts and £1,070,413 in win and place prize money.
In this year's Arc on October 7, Abdullah has a well fancied deputy for Rail Link in the Pascal Bary-trained Zambezi Sun,
five length winner of last week's Grand Prix de Paris,
and clipped a point to 5-1 in the ante-post market on Wednesday by Ladbrokes and VCbet.
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