GOLDEN Horn will become a Darley stallion in 2016 and will stand at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket. A fee has yet to be announced.

Winner of the Epsom Derby, Eclipse Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe this season, the son of Cape Cross could have one more start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on October 31st before being retired.

Trained by John Gosden for owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer, Golden Horn won his sole start at two and made a winning debut this year in the Listed Feilden Stakes at Newmarket in record time.

He then stormed into the Derby reckoning after an impressive win over subsequent Irish Derby victor Jack Hobbs in the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York, drawing almost three lengths clear.

Supplemented for Epsom, Frankie Dettori’s mount powered home to take the classic by three and a half lengths, Jack Hobbs again the runner-up. The victory earned Golden Horn a Timeform rating of 130, fully 4lb ahead of Cape Cross’s first Derby winner Sea The Stars after his own brilliant win in the race.

Dropped back to 10 furlongs for his next start in the Eclipse, Golden Horn saw off a strong challenge from multiple Group 1 winner The Grey Gatsby, once again winning by three-and-a-half lengths.

After a narrow second on rain-softened ground in the Juddmonte International at York, he bounced back to his brilliant best in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown last month.

NURTURED

Out of Fleche d’Or, a half-sister to Coronation Stakes heroine Rebecca Sharp, Golden Horn is from a family that has been nurtured by the Oppenheimer family at their Hascombe And Valiant Stud for half a century.

Sam Bullard, director of stallions with Darley, said: “It is wonderful that Darley has bought into this great champion and we are thrilled that Mr Oppenheimer has decided that Dalham Hall Stud is where Golden Horn will get the best opportunity of becoming the great stallion we believe he can be.”