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Nadal, the horse, retires and sends tennis fans into panic mode

Nadal unexpectedly retired on Thursday afternoon.

No, it wasn’t that Nadal.

Famed horse trainer Bob Baffert’s horse Nadal was retired on Thursday after a condylar fracture was found in his left front leg, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Baffert’s Kentucky Derby qualifying points leader had mounted a perfect record and swept his division at the Arkansas Derby earlier this month, too.

Nadal had earned more than $1 million in four races and was widely considered a top contender for both the Belmont Stakes and the Derby.

“He got a very serious injury today, and he’s fine now,” co-owner George Bolton said, via the Courier-Journal. “We’re lucky. We got four great races out of him … The good news is the injury was found, right? It could have been catastrophic.”

If you panicked when first reading that Nadal had retired, you weren’t alone.

Plenty of sports fans understandably freaked out on social media after initially thinking that the tennis great Rafael Nadal had retired.

Classic mistake.

Don't worry, tennis fans. Rafael Nadal isn't retiring just yet.
Don't worry, tennis fans. Rafael Nadal isn't retiring just yet. (AP/Halden Krog)

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