Doncaster winner Brutal has had his career brought to a halt courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic with his retirement announced.
Brutal had been in work with a preparation targeted at the Brisbane Winter Carnival and Group One Stradbroke Handicap with a possible tilt at Royal Ascot afterwards.
With the winter carnival abandoned however and Royal Ascot under a coronavirus cloud, the four year -old has been retired to stand at Newgate Farm.
"It's disappointing but that's the way the cookie crumbles," said Newgate Farm's managing director Henry Field.
"The long-range plan was to bring him back and run him in Brisbane and Rupert (Legh, part-owner) had aspirations to go to Royal Ascot.
"If we could have envisaged this would have happened we would have got him ready for the All Aged Stakes but it wasn't to be. It's just a shame we couldn't knock off a few more Group 1 races before he went to stud."
Brutal retires as the winner of five races and $2.6 million from 10 starts with the Group One 2019 Doncaster Mile the jewel in the crown.
He also won the Gr2 Premiere Stakes and twice at Listed level.
