St Leger winner Kingston Hill has been retired to stand at Coolmore

The 2014 Ladbrokes St Leger winner Kingston Hill has been retired to stand at Coolmore for the upcoming season.

The Roger Varian-trained colt has not run this season, his final outing coming with an excellent fourth to Treve in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

His finest hour came at Doncaster last September when he beat Romsdal by a length and a quarter to claim the world's oldest Classic under Andrea Atzeni, having earlier been second to Australia in the Investec Derby.

The same partnership also claimed Group One glory at Doncaster during Kingston Hill's two-year-old season in the Racing Post Trophy.

Varian said: "We had hoped to get Kingston Hill back for the latter part of this season but sadly this has not been possible and the decision has been made to retire him.

"He was a very special horse for our yard giving us our first two-year-old Group One and Classic successes. In another year he might well have won the Epsom Derby but he ran into a very good horse in Australia.

"He's a beautiful mover with a great cruising speed and a turn of foot - pretty much everything you look for in a top class racehorse."

A son of Mastercraftsman, Kingston Hill ran in the colours of Paul Smith, son of Coolmore partner Derrick Smith.

The former told www.coolmore.com: "I was a huge fan of Mastercraftsman as a racehorse and was thrilled that Kingston Hill became his first Group One winner when he won the Racing Post Trophy.

"It's unfortunate that we haven't been able to get him back this year as Roger was convinced he would have made an even better four-year-old. It's great to see Mastercraftsman having another fantastic year with six Group winners including Amazing Maria."

Kingston Hill won four of his eight career outings and earned over £1million in win and place prize-money.