2023 Blue Diamond winner Little Brose (NZ) (Per Incanto) has been retired due to a tendon injury, with news on a stud deal still to come.
The son of Per Incanto was trained by Ben, Will and J.D. Hayes and won Victoria’s premiere juvenile contest before a consistent but winless three-year-old campaign.
A shift to David Hayes’ Hong Kong base followed, where he debuted with an eighth placing at G1 level and then ran a respectable second down in class.
However, disaster followed before he could get to the races again, as the entire bowed his tendon in his first trial of the campaign back in June.
Hayes and owners Peter Young Wai-po and David Young Yuk-chuen have taken the last two months taken to consider his future, but HKJC commentator Tom Wood reported on Wednesday that Little Brose’s retirement had been confirmed.
The injury was a devastating blow for Hayes, who said the galloper had been in superb shape going into the trial.
“He’s bowed his tendon and there’s never a good bowed tendon, is there?” Hayes told the South China Morning Post after the injury was sustained.
“I’ll be having a meeting with the owners next week when that final scan comes through and we’ll make a decision on his future.
“Before the trial, I was standing there at Conghua and said to my staff ‘this is a trophy horse for next season’. Ten minutes later, he was on a horse ambulance.”
Bred by David Wallace, Little Brose is by Little Avondale’s high-class sire Per Incanto and out of the American stakes-winning mare Mohegan Sky and is the fourth winner from six foals.