Snitzel half-brother to Winx euthanised

El Divino, a half-brother to brilliant Australian racemare Winx, was humanely euthanised on Friday after suffering a catastrophic injury during work at Ararat.

Racing.com reported that "the Darren Weir stable confirmed the four-year-old fractured a cannonbone in the last 200 metres of an 800-metre gallop, from which jockey John Allen emerged unscathed and was able to fulfil his engagements in the jumpouts that followed."

El Divino's death deprives Australian breeders of an exceptionally well-bred future stallion, as not only was he a half-brother to Winx, who has won her last 22 races and has notched 15 Group 1 victories, but he is also by the red-hot Snitzel.

Widden Stud had bought into El Divino after the colt won by five lengths on debut and dead-heated with Astern for first in the Group 3 Kindergarten Stakes for Gai Waterhouse at Randwick and thereafter raced him in partnership with owner-breeder John Camilleri.

El Divino was fourth in the Group 2 Run To The Rose and a fair seventh in the Group 1 Golden Rose itself at three, and he was later moved to Weir, for whom he finished second in a Listed contest at Moonee Valley in September.

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