Report: Shancelot retired with soft-tissue injury, ending comeback try

Crawford Racing's Shancelot, a top sprinter of 2019 who had been training at Fair Grounds for a possible return, emerged from a Monday workout with a soft-tissue injury and has been retired.

The 5-year-old son of Shanghai Bobby, out of the Is It True mare True Kiss, will stand at stud at Buck Pond Farm in Versailles, Ky., with a 2021 fee of $7,500.

Winner of the 2019 Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga with a whopping 121 Beyer Speed Figure for former trainer Jorge Navarro, Shancelot had not started since finishing runner-up in that year's Breeders' Cup Sprint. Now with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, he had been training steadily since mid-November with an eye on next month's rich Saudi Sprint in Riyadh, according to a report in Daily Racing Form.

Shancelot's scintillating Amsterdam performance capped a three-race win streak to start his career. After being beaten two nose's when third in the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens (G1), he came back to be beaten a head by Omaha Beach in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1) prior to the Breeders' Cup. 

Shancelot's body of work all came for Navarro, who in early 2020 was federally indicted on charges of using performance-enhancing drugs on his horses.