Triple top-level winner Iquitos retired to stand at Gestut Ammerland

Iquitos, who defeated Defoe by four lengths to land the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern this month, has been retired and will start his stallion career at Gestut Ammerland near Munich in Germany.

The six-year-old son of Adlerflug will stand at a fee of €6,000, with Ammerland owner Dietrich von Boetticher having acquired 51 per cent of the horse and racing owner Stall Mulligan retaining a 49 per cent interest.

Trained by Hans-Jurgen Groschel, Iquitos won eight of his 26 starts and more than €670,000 in prize-money.

He struck at the highest level on three occasions – in the prestigious Grosser Preis von Baden at four, the Bayerisches Zuchtrennen at five and the Grosser Preis von Bayern at six.

Iquitos boasts three further Group 1 placings and was also a dual winner of the Group 2 Grosser Preis der Badischen Wirtschaft.

He lost little caste in defeat in two of the world's greatest races – when a four-length seventh to Kitasan Black in the Japan Cup in 2016 and when beaten around seven lengths into seventh behind Enable in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe last year.

Iquitos is one of three Group 1 winners sired by Adlerflug alongside Ito – who also stands at Ammerland – and Lacazar.

He was bred by Dr Erika Buhmann out of the winning Areion mare Irika, a sister to the Listed-placed Inanya.

Gestut Ammerland, the new custodian of Iquitos, ranks as one of Germany's greatest breeders of the modern era, having produced the likes of Boreal, Borgia, Golden Lilac, Hurricane Run and Lope De Vega.

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