Hey Doc

Star sprinter Hey Doc has run his race, with connections announcing his retirement on Friday.

Co-trainer Calvin McEvoy said the gelding's owners voted unanimously this week to call time on the Group 1 hero's racing career, which netted more than $3 million in prizemoney.

The son of Duporth won 10 races during a brilliant 32-start tenure and competed in G1 company from his first season as a two-year-old to his last season as a seven-year-old.

He announced himself as a star with victory in the G1 Australian Guineas (1600m) as a three-year-old before developing into one of the country's premier sprinters as an older horse, winning the G1 Manikato Stakes (1200m) twice (2017 and 2020), as well as the G1 Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) in Perth in 2019.

McEvoy said Hey Doc had endeared himself to the staff at both Angaston and Ballarat and his absence would leave a void in the stable.

"He's been a real flagbearer for our stable, an incredible horse," McEvoy said.

"When he won the Australian Guineas in 2017, that was Dad's first Group 1 win after he branched out from Lindsay Park.

"And for the horse to also be my first Group 1 winner after we went into partnership, he was incredible for us.

"If you look at his record, he was there in the Blue Diamond as a two-year-old then to be third in a Caulfield Guineas and winning the Australian Guineas, and then come back as an older horse to establish himself as one of the country's best sprinters, he was just an amazing horse.

"He wasn't always a straightforward horse - he had surgery and a couple of really long breaks, but he continued to come back and compete.

"There was no injury or anything like that, he didn't have anything left to prove on the track."

The stable confirmed that Hey Doc will retire to Victoria's Three Bridges Thoroughbred Farm in Eddington, where Pauline Liston will oversee his transition into a riding horse.