The well known horse racing owners group Godolphin based out of the UAE, yesterday announced that Hawkbill one of their star performers over the past few years has now been retired after a really strong career winning two Group 1 races.
Hawkbill was last seen in September at Woodbine racecourse in Canada where he finished a tame eighth out of 10 runners and that really put the nail in the coffin for the five year old that he could never get back to being his best.
The highly successful horse really made a name for himself on the big stage in 2016 where he took the Group 1 Coral Eclipse at Sandown and this came just after his first group success at Royal Ascot in the Tercentenary Stakes.
After this success he went very hit and miss again and only started to recapture some of his form in spells as a four year old when landing the Group 3 Al Rayyan Stakes at Newbury and then later in the season winning the Group 2 Princess Of Wales's Arqana Racing Club Stakes.
To end his four year old season after that he came a valiant runner up twice in Group 1s in Germany and Canada where Godolphin were really hoping he would come out on top but were still pleased.
Back as a five year old and in search of another Group success, he couldn't have started better by taking the Dubai City Of Gold Group 2 in Meydan and then soon after that landed his second Group 1 of his career beating this seasons superstar Poet's Word in the Dubai Sheema Classic also at Meydan.
From there hawkbill never recaptured ay of the same form and was down the field in many black type events and this was the right time to see him retire on a brilliant career as a racehorse. In his 24 race career the Godolphin horse earned more than £3.5 million in earnings.
