Breeders' Cup winner Corniche to stand at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in 2023

Corniche, the 2021 Eclipse champion two-year-old and multiple Grade 1 winner, has been retired and will be sent to Ashford Stud in Kentucky where he will begin his stallion career in 2023.

The son of Quality Road, out of Grade 1-placed, Grade 2 winner Wasted Tears, suffered his only loss in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga in July, where he sustained a career-ending injury to a hind joint. He retires with $1,263,500 in earnings.

Corniche topped the 2021 Ocala Breeders' Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale when bloodstock agent Marette Farrell bought him for $1.5 million on behalf of owners Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner of Speedway Stables.

Trained by Bob Baffert, Corniche was undefeated in three starts as a juvenile. He won on his debut at Del Mar and immediately stepped straight up to Grade 1 company for the two-turn American Pharoah Stakes, where he posted another front-running success.

Drawn widest of all, in post 11, for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Corniche won gamely by one and three-quarter lengths.

"It's unfortunate that Corniche has been forced to retire at this point in his career, but he will be revered for his remarkable juvenile season," said Ashford Stud manager Dermot Ryan. "He's a most impressive looking individual and I can see him proving extremely popular amongst breeders."

Bred in Kentucky by Bart Evans and Stonehaven Steadings, Corniche is the best juvenile by this year's current leading sire Quality Road, who to date has sired 59 black-type winners, which include 31 Graded/Group winners and four champions. Besides Corniche, Quality Road is the sire of 2017 champion three-year-old filly Able Tasman, 2017 champion two-year-old filly Caledonia Road and Greece's 2018 Horse of the Year Run To The Hills.

Wasted Tears, by Najran, is a six-time Graded stakes winner whose top performances included victories on the Turf in the Grade 2 John C. Mabee Stakes and the Jenny Wiley Stakes. She also set a one-mile track record at Lone Star Park in the 2009 Grade 3 Ouija Board Distaff Handicap, a race she would win twice more.

Wasted Tears is out of the stakes winner Wishes And Roses by Greinton, making her a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Wishingitwas and Stakes winner Almost Certain.

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