News Harry Fry calls time on Rock On Ruby career due to injury

Harry Fry calls time on Rock On Ruby career due to injury

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Harry Fry has been dealt a hammer blow after a tendon injury forced former champion hurdler Rock On Ruby into retirement.

Harry Fry has been dealt a hammer blow after a tendon injury forced former champion hurdler Rock On Ruby into retirement.

The 10-year-old showed he retained plenty of his old dash at Ascot last Saturday when winning the Coral Hurdle but, in doing so, he suffered a career-ending injury.

A statement posted on www.harryfryracing.com read: "It is with great sadness we would like to inform you that our superstar hurdler and horse of a lifetime Rock On Ruby has been retired."

The statement continued: "There were quite a few tears shed by our staff in the tack room this morning when I told them the news. No wonder, because he is a much loved character and a bit of an institution here at Seaborough.

"Ruby suffered a tendon injury after his win in the Coral Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday.

"If he was a younger horse we might have considered treating the injury and bringing him back a year or more later."

Rock On Ruby beat Overturn in the 2012 Champion Hurdle, when officially trained by Paul Nicholls, but much of the credit for the win went to Fry, who looked after the satellite yard from which he was trained at the time.

A thoroughly consistent performer, he finished out of the first four only once in his 27-race career when eighth in the 2014 Arkle.