Sir Michael Stoute has announced he will stop training at the end of the year, bringing to an end a glittering career spanning six decades.
Stoute, 78, has trained numerous champions, including the peerless Shergar, one of six Derby winners, as well as the likes of Shareef Dancer, Zilzal, Harbinger and Workforce.
He has been champion trainer on ten occasions and between 1985 and 2022 there were only four seasons in which he did not send out a Group 1 winner.
In a statement to the PA news agency, Stoute said: "I have decided to retire from training at the end of this season.
"I would like to thank all my owners and staff for the support they have given me over the years. It has been a great and enjoyable journey."
Stoute saddled his first winner in 1972 and four years later Fair Salinia became his first Classic winner when winning the Oaks, a race the trainer also won with Unite in 1987.
He has won 16 British Classics, most recently the 2022 Derby with Desert Crown, and 13 in Ireland, as well as plundering some of the biggest prizes around the world.
Many of his biggest victories came at Royal Ascot where, starting with Etienne Gerard in the 1977 Jersey Stakes, Stoute has had 82 winners, second only to Aidan O'Brien, and has been leading trainer at the meeting six times.
He also became one of the most enthusiastic adopters of the expanded international calendar and has won a number of landmark races globally, including the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, which he won with Workforce in 2010, the Japan Cup, Dubai World Cup and Hong Kong Vase.
Stoute first scored at the highest level when Music Maestro won the 1977 Flying Childers Stakes and his most recent Group 1 winner was Bay Bridge, who landed the 2022 Champion Stakes at Ascot.
Before racing on Tuesday, Stoute had recorded 19 winners from 127 runners this season, with Passenger providing the most notable success in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes in May.
Stoute, who was knighted in 1998 for services to tourism in his native Barbados, was inducted into the Qipco British Champions Series Hall of Fame last year.
