DUAL Cheltenham Festival and 10-time Grade 1 winner Un De Sceaux has been retired following a suspensory ligament injury.

The 12-year-old was set to be an intriguing contender in the Champion Chase but Willie Mullins reported he wasn’t right after working on Thursday morning and the injury was found following a veterinary inspection yesterday morning.

Un De Sceaux is owned by the O’Connell family, who enjoyed many fabulous days with the son of Denham Red. Reflecting on his career this week, Colm O’Connell said: “He was just a fabulous racehorse to own. I remember we asked Willie would he find us a Festival horse. Now we didn’t have a lot of money, probably enough to buy a five series BMW or something like that, so we’d given Willie a near impossible task.

“A few months went by and we had heard nothing but then Willie came back to us saying he had a horse that was a little bit headstrong but he might win a race or two.

“I’ll never forget his first run in Punchestown. Ruby Walsh came back in and he could barely hold up his arms from trying to restrain him.

Winning and winning

“He started winning and winning and the offers kept coming in. But we were never going to sell him. I remember Willie’s mother Maureen telling us in the early days after one of his races, ‘You’ll never get another like him’. And that was enough for us!”

Un De Sceaux was a short price for the Champion Hurdle in just his second season in Ireland but was kept back by Mullins and saved for a novice chasing career. He fell on his first start over fences but won all four next starts, including the Arkle Novice Chase on his first run at Cheltenham.

“I remember being in the parade ring before the Arkle and Ruby asking me had my parents travelled over and I said no, they’re at home and they’re very nervous watching on the television. Ruby then looked me in the eye and said ‘ring them and tell them not to be nervous, that I’ll have everything on a bended knee by the time we’re at the top of the hill!’”

Un De Sceaux was back at the Festival the following year to contest the Champion Chase and played his part in one of the most famous renewals of the two-mile contest, coming off second best to a resurgent Sprinter Sacre. Twelve months after that, the Iron Horse, as he had become known, was back in the winners’ circle at Cheltenham having won the Ryanair Chase. Last year he could only manage fifth in the same race and O’Connell admitted to thinking that was it for a horse he likened to Eric Cantona.

“Leaving Cheltenham that day, I thought that was it for him. Every horse eventually comes to the end and to be honest we had no problem with that. We were happy to retire him after Punchestown and then he went and beat Min, and that was unbelievable.”

Aside from his two Festival wins, Un De Sceaux recorded three wins in the Clarence House Chase, two in the BoyleSports Champion Chase and one Tingle Creek. He won in Cheltenham, Punchestown, Sandown, Leopardstown and Auteuil and amassed €1.75 million in prize money.

“We wanted to go out in the big one – the Champion Chase. It would have been a fabulous swansong. And we wanted to give a bit back to the Mullins family, by having Patrick ride him in the race, but it wasn’t to be.”

According to O’Connell, the decision on how Un De Sceaux spends his retirement will be left to Virginie Bascorp, who has played an integral part in his career.

“Our name is on the racecard, but I’ve always said that Un De Sceaux is really Virginie’s horse. No words can put it to justice what she has put into the horse and there is no way he would have achieved what he has if it wasn’t for her.

“I always though he’d probably like a routine or to be kept busy. Like, you can’t keep Cantona in a nursing home! But Virginie can decide what would be the best thing to do with him.”