Classic-winning trainer best known for handling top fillies

David Wachman's impending retirement will rob the Irish scene of a considerable talent, nurtured initially in the jumps department before finding full expression as a Classic-winning trainer on the Flat.

Although his career has been of longer duration and somewhat less spectacular than that of David O'Brien, Wachman's decision to call a halt at the age of 45 has inevitable echoes of Vincent O'Brien's elder son, who quit abruptly in 1988 only four years after Secreto's famous Derby triumph.

Yesterday's announcement was poignant in its timing in the run-up to Irish Champions Weekend, graced last year by Legatissimo – the best of many high-class fillies Wachman has handled – who secured the third Group 1 win of a splendid three-year-old campaign in the Matron Stakes.