Scott will miss his 'underdog' Melodic Rendezvous

Many will miss the popular Melodic Rendezvous following the announcement of his retirement but none more so than his trainer Jeremy Scott, who paid tribute to his stable star on Sunday.

"He was always a bit of an underdog, fighting against the big stables, and people latched on to that and he had a good following with people regularly messaging me about him," said the Somerset trainer, who guided the 11-year-old to eight wins in a 31-race career.

"He always ran above his ability because he was so tough and one season he was absolutely brilliant."

That was four years ago when he won the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle at the start of 2013 to kickstart a sequence that included success in the Grade 2 Elite Hurdle, a race that brought the curtain down on his career on Saturday after he trailed in a distant last of the seven runners behind London Prize.

Scott added: "He went on to win the Contenders Hurdle at Haydock and then the Kingwell back at Wincanton. That was as good as he was and he was always fighting age after that as he didn't start racing until quite late.

"He was a fun horse who took us to a lot of exciting places and he has finished sound and hopefully will have a nice happy retirement."

One of his owners Paul Govier, who lives near Scott's stables, is taking Melodic Rendezvous in retirement.

Although Melodic Rendezvous built his reputation on gutsy wins on deep winter ground, Scott feels the rain that got into the Wincanton ground on Saturday was ultimately his undoing.

"Going into the race he had been as good as he ever has been," added Scott. "But when it got as soft as it did he couldn't get his legs out of it – his knees haven't been brilliant. When he was striding across better ground on the golf course inside the track he was fine."