Hailed by jockey William Buick as ‘the best I’ve ridden, without a doubt’, Ghaiyyath was retired from racing after finishing a close second in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September, 2020, as the second highest-rated Flat horse in Europe, according to Timeform. He earned a Timeform rating of 133 when comfortably beating Enable by 2¼ lengths in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July and recorded one of the performances of the season when, once again, making all the running to Magical by 3 lengths in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York the following month.
All told, Ghaiyyath won nine of his 13 races, finished outside the first three just once – on ‘very soft’ going in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in 2019 – and amassed just shy of £880,00 in win and place prize money. Aside from the Coral-Eclipse and the Juddmonte International Stakes, he also won the Coronation Cup at Newmarket on his seasonal reappearance in 2020, beating 2019 Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck by 2½ lengths and breaking the course record in the process.
Originally, the plan was to bid for a fifth success at Group One, or Grade One, level in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland, Kentucky in November, 2020. However, Ghaiyyath was reported to be sore following a routine piece of work at home, on the gallops of Moulton Paddocks, Newmarket and connections took the decision to retire him to Kildangan Stud in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Trainer Charlie Appleby said of the five-year-old, ‘It is obviously disappointing not to be taking him to the Breeders’ Cup, but the exertions of a long season, which started in Dubai in January, were starting to show…’