WILLIE Mullins has paid tribute to Chacun Pour Soi as “a wonderful horse to have anything to do with” after it was confirmed the six-time Grade 1 winner has been retired at the age of 11.

Eagle-eyed viewers of last weekend’s RTÉ Racing coverage would have spotted the top-class chaser being ridden by Katie Walsh during post-race interviews with winning jockeys at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival.

Mullins revealed to The Irish Field on Friday that Susannah Ricci’s two-mile specialist will spend the next chapter in his career with Walsh, whose final ride - and winner - came aboard the Riccis’ Antey at the 2018 Punchestown Festival.

Chacun Pour Soi bows out on the back of a tremendous second on his final start at the Punchestown Festival in April when giving superstar stablemate Energumene a serious scare in the Grade 1 William Hill Champion Chase.

Mullins said: “He’s been a tremendous servant to us over the years and it was a huge run from him at Punchestown in the spring. He was a really high-class horse and we were delighted to have him in the yard.

“Katie had been looking for a new horse because some of the flat jockeys felt that Thousand Stars, being a white horse, might have been upsetting some of the colts in the interviews on track. We’re all delighted to have someone like Katie to look after Chacun going forward.

Great temperament

“He has always been a smashing horse with a wonderful temperament; I think you could see that temperament on the television over the weekend. He was always a wonderful horse to have anything to do with.”

Originally trained by Emmanuel Clayeux in France at three and four, Chacun Pour Soi missed more than 1,000 days prior to his stable debut for Mullins but made up for lost time and was always held in the highest regard by the champion trainer.

The Policy Maker gelding, bred by Didier Berland, earned more than €800,000 in prize money as a nine-time winner.

One of the best two-mile chasers of the last decade not to have won a Queen Mother Champion Chase, his biggest wins include a hugely impressive, five-and-a-half-length beating of Allaho at the 2021 Punchestown Festival and a trio of top-level wins in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.