Champion two-year-old and Breeders' Cup winner Midshipman has been retired from racing and will stand his first season at Darley in America in 2011.
Oliver Tait, Darley's Chief Operating Officer, said, "Midshipman defeated the best of his generation while proving himself on both dirt and synthetic surfaces. We couldn't be more excited to have a champion two-year-old with his kind of looks and pedigree joining our roster in 2011."
Midshipman was voted the Eclipse champion two-year-old following an outstanding season which saw him capture the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile - defeating Mine that Bird and Pioneerof The Nile, who finished first and second respectively in the following year's Kentucky Derby. That year he also landed the G1 Del Mar Futurity and was narrowly beaten in the G1 Norfolk Stakes.
At three, he recorded a solid victory on the Belmont dirt, before heading to Santa Anita where he came agonizingly close to winning the G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, beaten less than a length in a blanket finish.
Midshipman retires having won of five of his eight starts and he never finished out of the top four. During his racing career, he defeated no fewer than nine G1 winners and is the highest-ever rated horse by Unbridled's Song.
Midshipman is out of the G1-placed multiple G2 winner Fleet Lady, also dam of G2 winner Fast Cookie - one of the top-weighted juveniles of her year. He is from the family of champions Salse and Carnauba.
Tait continued, "We look forward to showing Midshipman and fellow new recruit for 2011, Desert Party, to breeders during Keeneland September and in the months to come."
His fee will be announced at a later date.
