Racing fans got an unexpected boost today with news that Breeders` Cup winner Kalanisi will be back in action next year.
And connections believe there is even better to come from the four-year-old, who won three Pattern races in 2000 and had two memorable clashes with Giant`s Causeway.
It had been widely expected that Kalanisi would be sent to stud next year by the Aga Khan, whose year-younger Derby winner Sinndar has already been retired to join the owner`s breeding operation.
But the Aga`s racing manager Pat Downes told the Racing Post: 'Kalanisi will be staying in training.
'We looked at Kalanisi and decided it was right to keep him in training. He was unraced at two, only raced three times at three and improved throughout his four-year-old campaign.
'We feel the best of him has yet to be seen.'
Kalanisi will have plenty of options in 2001, having won the one-mile Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and 10-furlong Dubai Champion Stakes at Newmarket prior to victory in the mile-and-a-half Breeders` Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.
'The Breeders` Cup may not have been a true test of his stamina over a mile and a half but we`ll be looking at all the top mile-and-a-quarter and mile-and-a-half races next season,' Downes added.
It was at a mile and a quarter that Kalanisi, trained last season by Sir Michael Stoute having been with Luca Cumani previously, had his epic battles with Giant`s Causeway.
He went down by a head to the 'iron horse' in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown in July and the same margin in the Juddmonte International at York the following month.
