Novellist: Retired to stud

Trained by Andreas Wohler, Novellist was denied the chance to run in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe when he spiked a temperature on the morning before the race.

He won three other Group Ones in an 11-race career and his owner Dr Christoph Berglar explained why he chose to sell him to Japan.

He told www.thoroughbreddailynews.com: "Since 2011, the centre of my breeding activities has been in Kentucky, where our family is running Stonereath Stud, and we contemplated standing him ourselves in the United States.

"However, as a stayer and turf horse, and with 75% of all races in the US run over shorter distances and on dirt, Novellist would have had limited opportunities to succeed in that environment.

"A few established European farms were interested, but it became obvious that European valuations of the horse as a breeding prospect were certainly far removed from the Japanese offer we received.

"Novellist will be an interesting addition to the Japanese thoroughbred gene pool and should have a fair chance that he will be as successful a stallion as he was a racehorse.

"We still have his dam, Night Lagoon, as an active broodmare and two half-sisters to Novellist as upcoming broodmare prospects, and therefore the family should be standing on a sound foundation for the near future."