Willie Mullins has retired the *very special" horse who finally gave him a Cheltenham Gold Cup win.
The Irish trainer had four second places on the trot and had to wait another three years before he won the Festival's big race with Al Boum Photo. Paul Townend's mount stayed on resolutely to lift the prize in 2019 and repeated the result in game fashion a year later.
Mullins thought he was never going to win the Gold Cup, after Sir Des Champs, On His Own and Djakadam (twice), finished runner-up between 2013 and 2016.
"I was honoured to be involved with a horse like him and the first time he won the Gold Cup is up there as one of the best days I have ever had in racing," Mullins told the Racing Post.
The 10-year-old won just over £1million in prize money from 23 career starts.
Bought from France, he also had his final racecourse appearance there, when he was pulled up in last month's Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
Away from Cheltenham, Al Boum Photo enjoyed annual trips to Tramore's New Year's Day meeting, where he landed the last four renewals of the Savills Chase. Owned by Joe and Marie Donnelly, the son of Buck's Boum finished third when bidding to emulate Best Mate in the 2021 Gold Cup.
He had another attempt at winning it three times, when he was sixth behind Rachael Blackmore's horse A Plus Tard in March.
Al Boum Photo will now be retrained to go eventing, along with one of the owners' other horses, Melon. He finished runner-up four times at the Cheltenham Festival, including in two Champion Hurdles. Overall he scooped connections just short of £450,000 and he was last seen chasing home stablemate Easy Game at Killarney in May.
