Grand Annual Steeplechase hero Gold Medals has run his last race, with trainer Symon Wilde confirming the gelding’s retirement from racing on Friday.

The rising 13-year-old was being prepared for a fifth-consecutive run in the race that he has never finished further back than second in, but Wilde said he told the horse’s owners on Thursday that the veteran was struggling to make it to event after suffering some soft-tissue injuries in his preparation.

“It’s a really good way to go out,” Wilde said. “The team has managed him brilliantly all the way through since he first ran at the Carnival in 2012 and it just feels right to stop him now.

“He won his first start and he won his last start and to see him go out so well and healthy is just great.

“I got my head around it (retirement) and I thought ‘What a good time to retire him. He’s going out on top’.

Gold Medals has not run since winning last year’s Grand Annual over his arch-rival, fellow Kiwi-bred, Zed Em.

In all, Gold Medals ran 12 times over the May Carnival, from winning his two-year-old race in 2012 to running in the Warrnambool Cup, to contesting hurdles before finally proving his toughness again and again in the 5500m marathon.

“He could nearly do anything that horse.”

After Wilde purchased him as a yearling at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Select sale for $30,000 in 2011, Gold Medals went on to race 82 times for 13 wins, 24 placings and earnings beyond $1.12 million.