BARTON, for so long the shining star of jump racing in Ryedale, has run his last race.

The Tim Easterby-trained gelding, who made such a promising comeback at Wetherby at the beginning of the month, when finishing a close second to stablemate Turgeonev over a trip short of his best, has since been sidelined with a ligament injury, which has brought an end to his sparkling career.

Barton, who had been pencilled in to contest the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday week, has instead been retired, and this week left Ryedale to join his owner Sir Stanley Clarke, at his Midlands estate.

Easterby said: "He left on Tuesday. He was a wonderful horse and it's a shame that we had to finish him, but he had a good innnings and at least he's walked away in one piece."

Winner of 14 of his 26 races, and almost £300,000 in prize money, Barton enjoyed his finest campaign as a novice hurdler in the 1998-99 season.

Partnered by the since-retired Lorcan Wyer, the long-striding gelding, with the distinctive white blaze was unbeaten in seven races, a magnificent sequence highlighted by his clear-cut victory in the Royal & Sun Alliance Hurdle, an unforgettable first success for Easterby at the Cheltenham Festival.

Unfortunately, injury prevented him reappearing the next season, but he bounced back the following term, winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and the Grade 1 Martell Hurdle at Aintree, beating, by a wide margin, none other than Best Mate, who has since won two Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Barton then switched to fences and rattled up five wins in the 2001-2 campaign, which included a hat-trick at his owner's Newcastle track, and, most notably, the Grade 2 Martell Mildmay Chase at Aintree's Grand National meeting.

Although that sturdy chasing foundation placed him near the forefront of the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting for the following campaign, Barton was unable to fulfill his enormous promise over fences. A nasty foot injury at the beginning of last season sidelined him for several months, and although Easterby got him back on the course, the gelding failed to find his form in four outings.

His recent Wetherby comeback signalled a revival, but his subsquent return to the sidelines was one mishap too many and spelled the end of the road for this multi-talented horse, whose achievements embraced two Grade 1 races and seven Grade 2 events.

Barton can now look forward to a much-deserved retirement with his owner, alongside Clarke's other star performer, Lord Gyllene, winner of the 1997 Grand National.

"Hopefully, he'll have a long and happy retirement," said Tim Easterby. And so say all of us...

Updated: 12:18 Wednesday, November 19, 2003