Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll, an earner of nearly $4 million, has been retired from racing at age 7 because of bone bruising and will begin a stallion career in Saudi Arabia in 2027, according to co-owner Mike Mackin of Lucky Seven Stable.
Lucky Seven Stable campaigned Rattle N Roll throughout his career before partnering with Saudi Arabian businessman Sharaf Mohammed Al Hariri as an owner over the past couple of years.
Mackin said Lucky Seven Stable has agreed to sell the son of Connect outright to its partner, and Mackin expects to finalize the paperwork next week. The horse is currently at trainer Kenny McPeek's Magdalena Farm in Central Kentucky, he added.
Horse Racing Nation first reported Rattle N Roll's retirement during its write-up of a "barn tour" of the McPeek stable.
Mackin said he does not know the name of the Saudi Arabian farm that will stand Rattle N Roll, but Al Hariri's objective is to help develop Thoroughbred breeding in the country.
Rattle N Roll already is a familiar name in the Middle East. He captured the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Cup (G3) in early 2025 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse before finishing fifth in that year's $20 million Saudi Cup (G1). He then ran eighth in the Dubai World Cup (G1) at Meydan.
He returned to King Abdulaziz Racecourse this past winter, finishing ninth in the Feb. 14 Saudi Cup.
Winner of the 2021 Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland, Rattle N Roll accomplished the rare achievement of winning graded stakes races at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Unplaced in three starts this year, most recently when seventh in the May 30 Blame Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs, he retires with an 11-3-3 record from 33 starts.
"I was really hoping to get him a graded stake as a 7-year-old," Mackin said.
Bred in Kentucky by St. Simon Place out of the Johannesburg mare Jazz Tune, Rattle N Roll was purchased for $210,000 by McPeek on behalf of Lucky Seven Stable at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
The horse is the final runner for Lucky Seven Stable, a partnership of members of the Mackin family. Mike Mackin's siblings no longer wish to own racehorses. Lucky Seven Stable also raced graded stakes winners Smile Happy and Minister's Baby.
Mike Mackin now owns horses under his MJM Racing banner.
Mackin acknowledged that Rattle N Roll's pedigree and steady closing running style limited his commercial appeal in a major stallion market such as Kentucky, noting that his sire Connect was sold earlier this year to stand in Turkey.
American breeders also "like a stallion to have some speed, and he doesn't really have any speed," Mackin said of Rattle N Roll. "But he can finish. No matter how far he goes, he's gonna come home in :23 and (change) and :24 flat."
As for Rattle N Roll's future at stud in Saudi Arabia, "That sounds like a pretty darn good home and good life to me," Mackin said.
