'I'm heartbroken, I felt she would have given the Arc a right good rattle' - Oaks winner Ezeliya retired after setback

Chris Hayes said he is heartbroken he will not get the chance to try to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Ezeliya after the impressive Oaks winner was retired on Saturday following a training setback. 

Ezeliya had been even-money with Paddy Power to complete the English-Irish Oaks double at the Curragh later this month, and just 12-1 third favourite for the Arc prior to the news we would not see her on a racetrack again. 

Her legendary trainer Dermot Weld said the setback was nothing major but enough to keep her out of action for the rest of the season. He, too, had been excited about having a crack at the Arc. 

Weld said: "Ezeliya was a brilliant winner of the Oaks and I was looking forward to training her for the Irish equivalent and the Arc in the autumn, but she just met a slight training setback. It wasn't anything major, but it was sufficient to stop her running for the rest of the year.

"It was only a slight setback but it was enough to mean I wouldn't be able to get her fit for the Irish Oaks, obviously given it's only a few weeks away, and she wouldn't be able to have a prep race for the Arc either so it was decided she would be retired. And she's retiring to join those other champion fillies who I trained.

"I've been lucky to have a Group 1 filly, who has been either a Classic winner or a champion filly before retiring, both for Moyglare and his highness the Aga Khan, over the years and she was another one. She was a very high-class filly."

Chris Hayes and Dermot Weld after Ezeliya's Oaks winCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Ezeliya was electric at Epsom in the Oaks. Despite drifting all the way out to 13-2, from a morning price of 9-2, she assumed command early in the home straight and stormed to a three-length success over Dance Sequence. 

It was a second Oaks success for Weld, 43 years after his first with Blue Wind, and Ezeliya looked like a filly who could take the second half of the season by storm. 

Hayes said of her Epsom display: "If you were to write down exactly how you wanted a race to go, that was it. It literally could not have gone any better for me. I got the jump I wanted, I got the position I wanted, she didn't over-race, she handled the undulations, she swung down off the hill into the straight, she kept balanced and I was only getting stronger at the line. 

"We were quietly confident going into the race, but she put up a bigger performance than I envisaged beforehand. She was an exceptional filly."

Ezeliya is a Classic winner, but Hayes is convinced the best was yet to come. 

He said: "I think we had only scratched the surface with her. I was looking forward to the Irish Oaks and having a really good ride in the Arc.

Ezeliya: connections had high hopes she could on to even greater achievementsCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"I really did think we had a chance of giving the Arc a right good rattle later in the year, but these things happen and it's great that she has retired in one piece. She's a very valuable filly and, typical of the Aga Khan, she's got a lovely pedigree."

Hayes added: "She wouldn't poke your eye out size-wise, but physically she developed and filled out into her frame and there was a presence about her. She had a wonderful action and was very well-balanced. 

"And the way that man [Weld] trains, you were only going to get to see the best of her over the second half of the season. It's heartbreaking but she'll go home to Gilltown now and hopefully I'm still around to ride some of her offspring!"

Ezeliya won three of her four starts, landing the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes at Navan before she went on to score so impressively at Epsom. She ended her career with a Racing Post Rating of 115.

Weld's fab five fillies 

Tarnawa (best Racing Post Rating 122)

Unbeaten in 2020, winning the Prix Vermeille, Prix de l'Opera and the Breeders' Cup Turf during a flawless campaign. Came within three-quarters of a length of winning the Arc but couldn't contain the late surge of German raider Torquator Tasso. A smashing sort. 

Homeless Songs (best RPR 122) 

Produced a scintillating burst of speed to win the Irish 1,000 Guineas in 2022, form that was franked by the runner-up Tuesday who went on to land the Oaks. Didn't win afterwards, but that Curragh masterclass was a superb effort. 

Tahiyra (best RPR 119) 

Class and speed. Worn down late by Mawj in the 1,000 Guineas but won the Irish equivalent, the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Matron Stakes afterwards. Her best ever performance, according to RPRs, was the day she won the Moyglare Stakes as a juvenile when Chris Hayes said everything around him felt in slow-motion. 

Search For A Song (best RPR 118) 

Two-time Irish St Leger winner who was a superb stayer on her day. In the first of those Curragh Classic wins, she had Kew Gardens and Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter in behind.

Ezeliya (best RPR 115)

Three from four and one of the most emphatic Epsom Oaks winners in recent years. Who knows the heights she might have scaled in 2024 had a setback now forced her to retire early. 

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