Australian star Atlantic Jewel likely to retire

Atlantic Jewel was found to have swelling in the lower sheath of a flexor

tendon in her off-side foreleg and has been scratched from Saturday's Group 1

Cox Plate a short time after being assigned post position seven in an

oversubscribed field of 15.

The defection means that It's a Dundeel, who handed Atlantic Jewel her lone

career defeat in the Underwood Stakes Sept. 21, has assumed the mantle of

favoritism at 3-1.

A A$320,000 purchase out of the 2010 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale,

Atlantic Jewel quickly stamped herself as a star, winning the Thousand Guineas

in her fourth career appearance. She added the Wakeful Stakes by seven

dominating lengths, but was forced to miss the VRC Oaks with a stress fracture

in her back and was spelled. She returned in the Australian fall to take the

All-Aged Stales last April, but a tendon injury to her opposite leg resulted in

a 16-month absence.

An impressive winner of the Memsie Stakes August 31, she thrashed her peers

in the Stocks Stakes two weeks later, but suffered a narrow defeat at the hands

of It's a Dundeel in the Underwood a week later. In what is likely to be her

career finale, Atlantic Jewel atoned for that defeat in no uncertain terms,

streaking away by four lengths in the Caulfield Stakes at the Melbourne oval

October 12.

"That is probably the end of her racing career," Coolmore's Michael Kirwan

told Racing Post. "We have to get a veterinary report but she has had an

injury in the past and she's now five so we probably will be retiring her. She

is a bit of a freak. The fact she was able to come back after such a long layoff

and win the Memsie Stakes over seven furlongs against all the best horses in

Australia shows how good she was, that's the reality. She was the real deal,

there's no doubt about that. She had unbelievable ability."

Kirwan told Racing Post that Atlantic Jewel is likely to be send to

the Northern Hemisphere in the coming months.

"Assuming she is retired, we'll look after her and then send her to Ireland

sometime around Christmas before she then joins the northern hemisphere

broodmare band, at least for the time being," he told the trade daily. "The

likelihood is she will visit Galileo. It's nearly November now and it's getting

too late to cover this type of mare in Australia."

Atlantic Jewel has amassed earnings of A$1,587,925 in winning 10 of her 11

career starts.

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