Trot Insider has learned that award-winning millionaire pacer Sintra has been retired. 

Now 10, Sintra made his most recent start at Grand River Raceway, winning a conditioned event in 1:53.3.  That was start number 145  and his 20th outing of the year, but his current form was certainly a step below that O'Brien Award-winning speed that he flashed in years past. Even a year ago today (Oct. 14, 2022) Sintra scored in the Open Pace at The Meadows in 1:49.4.

According to TheStable's Anthony MacDonald, the time had come to pull the shoes off the millionaire pacer when trainer Harry Poulton noted some soreness in Sintra's left hind ankle after that Grand River victory.

"He was quite sore on it to the point where they wanted to get him looked at," said MacDonald in a video posted to YouTube. "Got him re-xrayed and fluoroscoped, and sure enough that left hind ankle had some pitting and some roughness. You could see the joint itself was in trouble, and now it had started to kind of chew away at the cartilage and the bone underneath.

"It made no sense to continue on."

A son of Mach Three - Dancin Barefoot, Sintra started racing in 2015 and, over the next several years participated in some of North America’s most coveted stakes events primarily for trainer David Menary. His best season came in 2017, when Sintra captured the richest pacing event in Canada for older horses, the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk Racetrack, defeating an accomplished group of rivals that included likes of Hall of Famer McWicked, All Bets Off, Rockin Ron, Nirvana Seelster, Keystone Velocity, Easy Lover Hanover, Check Six and Dealt A Winner. 

The winner of the O'Brien Award in 2017 as Canada's Older Pacer of the Year, Sintra was also a finalist for that award in 2020. In July 2022, Sintra was obtained by TheStable.ca and paid immediate dividends for his new connections as the nine-year-old captured the 2022 Gold Cup & Saucer in a track record-equalling 1:50.1.

After 145 starts, Sintra retires with a mark of 1:47.2 taken as a four-year-old at The Meadowlands, a summary of 48-22-13 and nearly $1.7 million in earnings. MacDonald indicated that Sintra has found some familiar surroundings for his life after racing.

"I couldn't think of any better ending than to simply give him back to where it all started, back to the Menary family where he's going to live out his life — as he should."