Rags-to-riches mare Princess Zoe has left Tony Mullins, the trainer who transformed her from a 64-rated handicapper into one of the top stayers in Europe.
The eight-year-old grey has been sent to a stud farm while owner Paddy Kehoe decides on her future.
Mullins, brother of Ireland’s champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins, and Kehoe had a public falling out in March after Princess Zoe finished fifth in the Jack de Bromhead Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
She was pulled up with wounds to her inside fetlock and outside of cannon on her left hind after her latest run at Fairyhouse last month.
“She’s gone back to a stud farm to recover,” Mullins told the Nick Luck Daily podcast. “I thought she was going to be retired but it doesn’t seem to be that way now.”
He added: “Paddy Kehoe is a died-in-the-wool jumping man and we bought her to go hurdling. But the way she trained it never seemed to suit her.
“When she didn’t sell last year he pushed to go jumping and I thought she did fantastic. She won the first day and then ran a fantastic race in Cheltenham. I just thought she was never a hurdler."
Princess Zoe had her first run for Mullins in June 2020 and, after finishing second on her stable debut, won her next five starts culminating in victory in the Prix du Cadran at Longchamp.
She finished second in the Ascot Gold Cup in 2021 and returned to Ascot to land the Sagaro Stakes the following year before switching to hurdles.
“It’s very upsetting," Mullins said. "Horses come and go but I had an affinity with this mare that I never had even with my pony as a kid. I had a personal relationship with her as opposed to to a horse-trainer relationship. “
