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Twilight Dragon has made his final trip to his favourite haunt.

The Ellerslie sprinting specialist has been retired in the wake of his last winning visit to the headquarters of northern racing.

“He’s had ongoing niggles and I had my vet go over him this week and we decided to pull the pin,” Ardmore Lodge trainer Danny Walker said.

“I was happy to make that decision. He’s been a very good horse and I would have hated to see anything happen to him.”

Twilight Dragon was patched up to post the seventh win of his career at Ellerslie last time out when he successfully returned from a break to dominate the open handicappers over 1200 metres.

The son of Spartacus has been troubled throughout his career by knee problems that have restricted his racing opportunities – “that’s why he couldn’t go left-handed,” Walker said.

Twilight Dragon’s only success away from Ellerslie was at Pukekohe and he retires with eight wins and five placings from his 20 starts.

He was one of two winners for the stable last weekend with the three-year-old Bolshoi Ballet trumping his maiden rivals by a wide margin.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure where he’ll go next, but he is a pretty smart horse,” Walker said.