Magical, last year's Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up, will not get the opportunity to do one better in Saturday's Filly & Mare Turf.
According to Europe's Racing Post, the 4-year-old mare spiked a temperature, didn't travel to Santa Anita Park and will be retired to begin her career as a broodmare.
"She has been an unbelievable mare," trainer Aidan O'Brien told Racing Post. "She was so game, so consistent and so classy."
A last out winner of the Champion Stakes (G1) over males at Ascot, Magical won four Group 1 races in all but would have faced a compact schedule leading into the Breeders' Cup. A victory in the Oct. 19 Champion Stakes came on the heels of a fifth in the Oct. 6 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
While she never wound up on the right side of Enable, the daughter of Galileo put in a top effort to cap her 3-year-old season when finishing only 3/4 of a length back in the Turf at Churchill Downs. It was another nine lengths to third, quite the wide margin on the lawn.
Magical is expected to breed with young Coolmore sire No Nay Never in 2020.
This defection from the 1 1/4-mile Filly & Mare Turf returns heavy favouritism to the Chad Brown-trained Sistercharlie, a winner of six consecutive Grade 1 races, including last year's renewal.
O'Brien's Breeders' Cup contingent will still include, among others, a possible Juvenile Turf favourite in 2-year-old colt Arizona.
