Six-times Group One winner Snow Fairy has been retired, trainer Ed Dunlop said in a statement.

Time has been called on the brilliant mare's career after she suffered a tendon injury during a workout on Tuesday morning.

Dunlop said: "It is with much sadness that a decision was made this morning to retire Snow Fairy. Unfortunately, after a routine piece of fast work, she was found to have re-injured her near fore tendon, which has caused her problems in the last two years."

Snow Fairy secured just under £4million in prize-money in a career which saw her win a number of top races across the globe. She was last seen claiming the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September 2012.

Dunlop added: "I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mrs (Cristina) Patino for all she has done, she has been the most wonderful owner of a truly amazing horse.

"Most owners would have retired her a lot sooner than she did and if this had been the case she would not have won the Irish Champion Stakes last year, which was without doubt her greatest performance.

"I would also like to thank all of my staff who have looked after her, ridden her and travelled her around the world. She remains the only international horse to have won two Group Ones in Japan. She will return to Ireland, where I hope she will have a fantastic life as a broodmare."

Although she showed smart form as a juvenile, it was as a three-year-old that Snow Fairy really made her mark. After completing the English and Irish Oaks double, she capped off a momentous 2010 campaign with further Group One victories in Hong Kong and Japan.

Her 2011 return was delayed after she suffered the first of what became a string of injury setbacks, but she ran a number of good races in defeat before ending the year with another glorious display in Japan's Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup.

Snow Fairy came home in front on her return to action last August's Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville, before being subsequently disqualified after a banned substance was found in a sample. A sixth Group One victory was not far away, however, as she beat Nathaniel in Leopardstown's Irish Champion Stakes.