Paul Nolan has decided to call time on the career of his Grade One-winning hurdler Shinrock Paddy after he burst a blood vessel at Navan on Sunday.
The 10-year-old was one of the top novices in Ireland in 2009, but was pulled up when a leading fancy for the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival that season.
He went on to win two more races, including the 2011 Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas, but recent results have been disappointing and after pulling up in the Foxrock Handicap Chase, Nolan has drawn stumps.
The trainer said: "We've decided to call it a day with him. He burst a blood vessel badly on Sunday and it's the third time it's happened, so there is no point carrying on with him.
"He ran fourth in the Proudstown (Handicap Hurdle) in Navan on his first run of the season and we thought that maybe we could get him back.
"We freshened him up after he ran at Leopardstown at Christmas, he was working well at home and scoped clean, but going to the races creates a different buzz in their system and unfortunately he bled again.
"He is so well handicapped, if he didn't bleed he'd win by a fence, but unfortunately that's the condition he has. He bled after two fences on Sunday.
"If he was in America he could run on Lasix to help him, but you can't do that here, so we've had to stop."