Report: 4-time graded winner Closing Remarks is retired

Closing Remarks, a four-time Grade 2 winner who earned over a million dollars during her racing career, has been retired. Her career ended after three straight sixth-place finishes in graded turf stakes in California, most recently the Grade 2 Buena Vista on Sunday.

"She's 100% healthy and sound," trainer Carla Gaines said to BloodHorse, who reported the retirement of Closing Remarks. "I think she's thinking of other things, kind of over this racing thing."

Closing Remarks, a Harris Farms homebred, beat California-bred juveniles in her turf sprint debut for Gaines on Aug. 31, 2020. She won the California Cup Oaks in January of her 3-year-old year, and though she did not win again until an allowance a year later, she became a serious contender against open company that year, with three second-place finishes in graded stakes including in the Del Mar Oaks (G1) in August of 2021. In that race, she missed by a diminishing length to Going Global.

From her 4-year-old year on, Closing Remarks only faced open company, and she hit her best stride as a 5-year-old in 2023. All four of her graded-stakes wins came that year, including a half-length victory over Queen Goddess in the Goldikova (G2) on Breeders' Cup weekend at Santa Anita. She finished her career with a record of 27: 7-5-4 and earnings of $1,000,820.

According to the BloodHorse report, Closing Remarks left Santa Anita on March 6 and stallion plans are pending.