The issue with last year’s Belmont Stakes winner and this term’s Metropolitan Hcp winner was found by vets after a sixth place finish at odds-on in Saratoga’s GI Whitney Stakes last month.

Palace Malice continued to show poor form when he worked several times following that race, leading to an examination at a Kentucky clinic that revealed the extent of his problem.

"This situation causes us to address retiring Palace Malice, although the prognosis states that the horse should race to his true potential as a 5-year-old after sufficient time for healing this problem," Dogwood Stable president Cot Campbell explained.

Studs plans are pending for the 4-year-old, who was the consensus leading older horse in the country before the Whitney.

"We are contacting those breeding operations that earlier have expressed interest in this horse and we will have discussions regarding his future," Campbell said.

Last year Palace Malice was third in the G2 Risen Star and second in the GI Blue Grass Stakles before annexing the GI Belmont over Preakness winner Oxbow and Kentucky Derby winner Orb.

His also won the G2 Jim Dandy at three and this year won the G2 Gulfstream Park Hcp, G2 New Orleans Hcp, G3 Westchester Stakes and G1 Met Mile in successive starts before his Whitney failure.