Top jumper Jackfrost’s racing career has come to an abrupt end after suffering an injury in Australia.

The Brian and Shane Anderton-trained gelding was preparing for an Australian jumps campaign, but will now return home to undergo rehabilitation in preparation for an alternative career.

“He’s done his suspensory,” Brian Anderton said. “The vet said he would want 12 months and he didn’t think he would come back as a jumper.

“The boys (owners) are doing the right thing by him. They are going to bring him home, he is going to go to Coaster Howes, then we’ll put him up the farm for six months and then it is up to the boys to make up their mind what they want to do with him.

“He could be a clerk of the course, a show horse, or whatever.”

Jackfrost has come to mean a lot to Anderton, with the son of Gallant Guru winning the Great Northern Hurdle (4200m) last year, a race that had eluded his trainer.

“It was great for Shane, but it was always one of my ambitions to win a Northern,” Anderton said.

“I got placed in steeples and hurdles, but I couldn’t win one. But he bagged that for us, so that was a hell of an achievement for me at my twilight.”

Jackfrost won six of his 43 starts on the flat, but it was over hurdles that he showed his true talents.

He won five of his nine starts over hurdles and was runner-up in his four other races. His biggest wins included the Great North Hurdle and the Grand National Hurdles (4200m).

While Anderton is disappointed in losing one of his stable stars, he is looking forward to Oamaru on Sunday where Raise You Ten will compete in the Crombie and Price Ltd Oamaru Cup (1600m).

Anderton is pleased with his gelding after his runner-up performance over 1400m at Ashburton earlier this month, but said the current Good2 track conditions are a slight concern for the five-year-old son of Raise The Flag.

“He’s very well. I would just like to see him settle a bit more in his races. We put the blinkers on him because we felt that he was too switched off,” Anderton said.

“The thing that worries me is that he likes a bit of soft ground and it’s going to be pretty hard there on Sunday.

“But he is well and I can’t get him any better.”