The remarkably durable 9-year-old Brando  has been retired after finishing 12th on his sixth and final crack at the Oct. 16 QIPCO British Champions Sprint Stakes (G1).He was beaten just a nose by Glen Shiel  when second in the Ascot group 1 event last year and had also finished third, fourth (twice), and sixth in the race in previous years.The Pivotal sired sprinter did score at the top level in the LARC Prix Maurice de Gheest (G1) at Deauville in 2017, 11 months after he had given Kevin Ryan the fourth of his five victories in the Williiam Hill Ayr Gold Cup.
Brando will spend his retirement with the trainer’s daughter Amy and partner Tom Eaves, who rode him through most of his career, and Ryan said: “I had it in my mind that win, lose, or draw on Saturday it was probably time to pull up stumps. We owe him more than he owes us.”