AMONG recently retired National Hunt horses is Definitly Red, with trainer Brian Ellison drawing stumps on the career of Julie and Phil Martin’s Definite Article 12-year-old after the chesnut gelding was pulled up by Ryan Mania in the Grade 3 Randox Grand National at Aintree earlier this month.

Brian Hamilton, who trained Definitly Red in his younger days, marked the horse’s retirement on Twitter: “A very happy and well deserved retirement to Definitly Red, bought by @ballynoeracing as a 3yo from @GoffsUK and won his 4yo at Loughanmore it was lovely to follow his career and cheer him on so many times. Well done @BERacingLtd handling him so well & to Mr & Mrs Martin #star.”

Also retired following the National, in which he refused at the 21st fence, was the Mills & Mason Partnership’s Ballyoptic. The 11-year-old Old Vic gelding was trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and like so many horses at Grange Hill Farm, the bay first ran in the colours of Wilson Dennison, winning his maiden at Kirkistown in March 2015 when in the care of Ian Ferguson.

A Loughanmore graduate we could have expected to line-up in this year’s National was Bellshill but sadly this five-time Grade 1 winner suffered a fatal injury last month on the gallops of Sandy Thomson who took over training the 2010 King’s Theatre gelding last year.

Like recent retiree, and Loughanmore graduate, Yorkhill, Bellshill did most of his running in the colours of Andrea and Graham Wylie.