Classic winners, star sprinters and Shadwell aces - Paul Hanagan's five best horses

Paul Hanagan, who announced his retirement from the saddle on Wednesday, was associated with many fine horses and here we pick out five of the best …

Wootton Bassett

You never forget your first and Wootton Bassett was Hanagan's first top-level winner when he landed the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in 2010.

Trained by the rider's long-time ally Richard Fahey, the son of Iffraaj was completing a juvenile five-timer after valuable sales race strikes at York and Doncaster.

He failed to win again at three, but has left a lasting legacy on the sport by emerging as a top sire who now stands at Coolmore.

Mayson

Another Fahey inmate, he was useful at two and three, but blossomed at four when he won the Abernant and Palace House at Newmarket.

Those wins came on the Rowley Mile, but what he did at the July course in 2012 is what most people remember.

Mayson: wide-margin winner of the 2015 July Cup under HanaganCredit: Edward Whitaker

Sent off an unconsidered 20-1 shot for a heavy-ground July Cup, Mayson powered home by five lengths – a rare winning margin for a top-level sprint.

Like Wootton Bassett, he has made a mark at stud too.

Mukhadram

Hanagan took over from Richard Hills as the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's retained jockey in 2012 and Mukhadram was one of his first high-profile mounts.

A Group winner during his four-year-old campaign, in which he was also second in the Prince of Wales's Stakes, Mukhadram nearly nicked the Dubai World Cup – then the sport's biggest prize – under an enterprising Hanagan ride before the pair enjoyed a deserved moment in the spotlight in the 2015 Eclipse. 

Mukhadram: landed the Eclipse in 2015Credit: Mark Cranham

Taghrooda

Hanagan enjoyed the biggest success of his career on Shadwell powerhouse Taghrooda, who was an imperious winner of the 2014 Oaks. Taghrooda followed up that Classic success with another brilliant display in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot when she dismissed the colts and older male horses.

A second and third in the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hardly took the gloss off her sublime, but short-lived, career.

Muhaarar

European sprinters typically do not win four Group 1s in a row, but Muhaarar did, although the first of those – the 2015 Commonwealth Cup – came under Dane O'Neil with Hanagan on Adaay.

The Charlie Hills-trained ace then starred in Hanagan's hands in the July Cup, Prix Maurice de Gheest and British Champions Sprint.

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