As racehorses go, Arch Fire comes from a privileged background, in human terms an Eton student bound for a career studying at Cambridge in England
The regally-bred gelding was considered by those at the world famous Juddmonte Farms in England to lack the turn of foot to trouble major group 1 races in Europe and after much debate went up for sale.
![Fresh pastures: Arch Fire is headed to the next phase of his life – paddock nanny.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170712080456im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/d/r/8/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwgdtu.png/1496205396859.jpg)
Six years later, on the other side of the world, Arch Fire's career ended at Sandown on Saturday when his trademark zest and passion for jumps races suddenly left him.
Arch Fire, sold all those years ago for $100,000, was shipped to Australia and managed to accumulate nearly $500,000 in prizemoney including two Australian Hurdles and nine race wins. He retires to a new and challenging role known in the thoroughbred world as a paddock nanny.
He will mentor racehorses of the future at a property in Gisborne in northern Victoria.
"He's been a marvellous horse," trainer Robert Smerdon said. "He didn't win a Melbourne Cup but he's given us loads of entertainment, paid his way and was well and truly a terrific investment.
"He'll be a paddock nanny now. He's a lovely strong, sound horse and he'll work with foals coming off their mothers, yearlings that come onto the property from sales and he can be that steadying influence to allow them to acclimatise to their new surroundings."
Arch Fire will play a similar role to another former champion hurdler, Some Are Bent, who is also being used with yearlings and foals during the breeding season.
"They've both gone to great homes and we knew, especially with Arch Fire, that he'd had enough. His heart wasn't in it and the moment we detected that, we unanimously agreed that life on a large farm was going to be the answer," Smerdon said.
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