The 2016 Met and Paddock Stakes winner Smart Call has been retired and will be covered by the Haydock Sprint Cup winner Kingman to Southern Hemisphere time.

Smart Call (Liesl King)

Jessica Slack told the Racing Post: “We decided a while ago that we wanted to retire her to stud this year and breed her on Southern time so Sir Michael Stoute planned her campaign this year to fit in with that. She has been such a star and we are so proud of her.”

Considering the authoritative way she won the Met – beating Legal Eagle by three and a half lengths with Captain America another length away third – her overseas campaign was rather disappointing.

She won only once, in a Group 3 on the all-weather at Newcastle. To be fair, she was highly tried and widely travelled. Two of her first four races in Europe were in Group 1s and she visited Hong Kong, Ireland (twice) and France. She was also reported to have suffered lameness problems.

By Michael Clower