After disappearing from the public eye for more than four years, Singapore’s champion sprinter Rocket Man was officially retired on Sunday during a simple and yet emotional farewell party at Kranji.

Arguably the most globally recognisable racing brand name to have come out of Singapore in the modern era, Rocket Man was paraded in front of his adoring fans before Race 7, the Rocket Man Farewell Stakes, a $125,000 Kranji Stakes A race over 1100m. With jockey Barend Vorster aboard, he was presented with a basket of carrots while 2,000 black Rocket Man caps were handed out to fans.

Considered by many as the best horse to have ever raced in Singapore, the Viscount 11-year-old was obviously not quite the prancing ball of muscle that used to inflict ruthless defeats to his rivals – all 20 of them.

While his local wins were a big part of his meteoric rise, it is his overseas heroics who really gave him his global cult status. The highlight was undeniably his historic Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m) win – after four close seconds in such Group 1 events - followed by the Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m) win in 2011, and a dead-heat with the John Moore-trained One World in a Group 2 race, the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) in Hong Kong in 2010.

From his 17 domestic wins at Kranji, the standout achievement is a record four Lion City Cups from 2009 to 2012.

But that champion quality was unmistakably still there as he stood proudly with his ears pricked, taking in for one last time that electric home crowd atmosphere that had cheered him on to countless victories.

Trainer Patrick Shaw and his staff, including assistant-trainers Ricardo Le Grange and Jacci de Tert, were on hand to see their hero take his final bow.

“It’s every trainer’s wish to have a horse like Rocket Man,” said Shaw, who himself is taking a 6 ½-month sabbatical from December 15, and will hand over to Le Grange in the interim.

“I’m going through mixed emotions as I watch him say his goodbye. On one hand, I’m sad to see him go as he’s done so much for us.

“But at the same time, he’s going to a lovely place on the beach in Cape Town where he will spend the rest of his retiring days.

“My good friend and trainer Mike Stewart has a stabling facility there and has a small area on the side where he will stay.

“My daughter is in Cape Town and will visit him often. I will be going up and down back home, and every time I go to Cape Town, I will drop by to see him.”

Shaw said that Rocket Man’s welfare had always been his and owner Fred Crabbia’s No 1 priority, even if it has taken him four years to finally give him his well-deserved “CPF” (Singapore pensions scheme).

“It was a situation where I was always worried by his injury. You can’t always see it and we had to go on the vet’s advice,” he explained.

“After his last barrier trial (March) he returned a little bit sore, and that’s when I decided to call it a day.

“The (off-fore) leg with the screws on was fine, but it was the suspensory ligament injury on the other leg I was concerned about. It takes much longer to heal.

“When Rocket Man puts in, he really puts in, but I would have hated to see something happen to him, and that last setback told me it was time to retire him.”

Rocket Man has for the best part of his racing career been plagued by leg issues – first a condylar fracture to his offside cannon bone as a three-year-old and then a suspensory ligament injury to his nearside leg three years later, but as a sign of his bottomless courage, overcame them to continue racing at the highest level.

Rocket Man bows out with an outstanding record of 20 wins, five seconds and one fourth (in the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes in Japan) from 27 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $6.7 million, the highest ever made by a local racehorse. The handsome bay was ridden at all three international wins by ex-South African jockey Felix Coetzee (who also rode him at two Kranji wins), while other partners were Robbie Fradd (eight wins) and Barend Vorster (seven wins).

Voted Singapore Horse of the Year twice, in 2011 and 2012, Rocket Man was also once ranked as the world’s second-highest rated sprinter in the world behind top horses like Hong Kong’s Sacred Kingdom and Australia’s wonder mare Black Caviar.

Sunday’s race meeting brings curtains on the Singapore racing season and fittingly, the unmatched racing career of one of our greatest racehorses - on our shores and beyond. 

Michael Lee