BOLSHOI Ballet, who registered the highest Beyer Speed Figure of any horse on turf in North America this year, has been retired from racing and will stand under the Coolmore National Hunt banner at The Beeches Stud.

Having won a two-year-old maiden at Leopardstown by four lengths, he twice returned to the Dublin track as a three-year-old to record the Derrinstown/Ballysax double emulating his own sire Galileo, Yeats and High Chaparral.

His next success came at the highest level in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby and in the latest season he landed another Grade 1 in North America for Ballydoyle when running out a four-and-a-half length winner of the Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga.

“Bolshoi Ballet is an exceptional looker and walker, extremely genuine and clean-winded,” said trainer Aidan O’Brien. “He had the class to win a Group 1 over a mile and a quarter and also stayed a mile and a half well.”

“I was very taken with Bolshoi Ballet when we went to see him at Ballydoyle earlier in the year,” said Robert McCarthy. “He’s a super-looking horse with real presence about him, a great colour, plenty of size and a very good walk. I have no doubt that breeders will be impressed when they come to see him.”

His initial fee has been set at €3,000.