Multiple Grade 1 winner Royal Anthem, who sustained what his connections called "a very minor suspensory injury" early this spring, has been retired and will stand at stud in the United States.

Ahmed Salman's The Thoroughbred Corporation, which owns the horse, has not determined where Royal Anthem will start his stud career.

Trained in the United States by Bill Mott, Royal Anthem last raced in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Breeders' Cup Handicap on Feb. 12, winning by three lengths.

His initial injury came while he was in training in Florida after that race. Royal Anthem was sent to Payson Park to recuperate in preparation for a comeback, but he aggravated the suspensory problem again. Royal Anthem has been shipped to Rick and Liz Trontz's Hopewell Farm in Midway, Ky., while Salman considers the horse's stud options.

Royal Anthem, a 5-year-old Theatrical horse, scored his early stakes victories in England. At 3, he won the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes and the Fairway Stakes, and also finished third in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes. His season ended with a seventh in the Breeders' Cup Turf.

But the following year, he won the English Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes and ran second in the Group 1 Coronation Cup and Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes before returning to America. Competing in the Breeders' Cup Turf again in 1999, Royal Anthem could not pass Daylami and finished second, beaten 2 1/2 lengths.

Two races left for Golden Missile
Golden Missile looks set to retire after contesting the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4. The horse, a 5-year-old by A. P. Indy, will stand at his owner's Adena Springs Farm in Versailles, Ky., according to Adena manager Dan Hall, but a stud fee won't be set until after the horse's racing days are over.

Golden Missile is slated to run in the Hawthorne Gold Cup in Illinois on Oct.7 as a prep for the Breeders' Cup. "As long as he comes out of the Breeders' Cup all right, the plan would be to get him here [to Adena Springs] as soon as possible," Hall said.

Golden Missile won this year's Grade 1 Pimlico Special and Grade 2 Stephen Foster Handicap and also finished second this year in the Donn, Westchester, and the Kentucky Cup Classic handicaps.