Aidan O’Brien’s dual Ascot Gold Cup winner Kyprios has been retired due to aggravating an old injury.

The seven-year-old son of Galileo leaves the track with an incredible record of 17 wins from 21 outings.

What makes his achievements all the more meritorious are that after a brilliant season in 2022 when he won all six of his races, including a first Gold Cup, he then missed almost the whole of 2023.

He did return for an autumn campaign and met with two defeats, but last year he was better than ever when winning all seven starts, including a second Gold Cup.

Announcing the news on X, his owners Coolmore said: “Due to an aggravation of an old ringbone lesion we have decided to take no chances with Kyprios and although he is currently sound and doing well the decision has been made to retire him from racing.”

Kyprios had been perfectly sound until his most recent outing in the Saval Beg at Leopardstown, when O’Brien reported he had taken a couple of lame steps.

By the following morning the Ballydoyle handler was able to issue a positive update but given what he means to those around him, the decision was taken with the horse’s best interests at heart.

“He’s been an unbelievable horse really,” O’Brien told the PA news agency. “We had to be very respectful of him. In every way he is perfect but just when he pulled up a little bit edgy the last day we couldn’t take any risks.

“It was the first time he’d taken a false step since he recovered from his serious injury. Everyone just wanted to do right by him.

“He’s been the most incredible horse, he had an incredible mind to go with his incredible ability.

“I don’t think any other horse in the world would have come back from the injury that he had.”

Many special moments have graced the career of Kyprios, but one race on his record particularly stands out for O’Brien – the extraordinary Prix du Cadran of 2022, when he won by 20 lengths despite hanging violently to his left inside the final furlong.

He said: “There was that day in France when he won by a long way. He was just galloping home really!

“He’d been round once, he could see where he needed to go and he just wanted to get back. He was an incredible horse, he was just always in second gear most of the time.

“That was just unusual that Prix du Cadran, they all fell away, nothing could go with him and he got left in front and got a bit lonely.”