Baffert and Prince Ahmed Salman discussed the decision

Baffert revealed that the decision to retire the three-year-old came after much deliberation with owner Prince Ahmed Salman and Richard Mulhall, racing manger for the Prince's Thoroughbred Corp.

A tendon strain usually takes up to six months to heal but the Prince, who also bred the horse, was unwilling to take any risks.

"The horse has meant so much for him, has brought him so much joy," Baffert said.

"He's already stamped himself as a great horse and the Prince said 'Why continue? Why take a chance?'", the trainer added.

Point Given's class is undoubted and in 13 races the colt crossed the line first in nine races, most recently in the $1m Travers Stakes.

The horse, who was regularly partnered by Gary Stevens, won almost $4m in prize money and was only once out of the frame at the finish of a race, the Kentucky Derby.

That setback in the first race of the Triple Crown was followed by memorable victories in the second and third legs, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

"Everyone is still getting over the shock," former top jockey Willie Carson, the Thoroughbred Corporation's UK racing manager, told the BBC.

"It wouldn't normally be career ending but he will not be able to run in Breeders' Cup so it looks like the end of the road.

Gary Stevens regularly partnered the colt

"He was a great horse and everybody had been counting down to a great showdown," Carson added of the contest with the Aidan O'Brien trained Galileo at Belmont Park.

The rare transatlantic showdown was scheduled for October's Breeders' Cup Classic on the dirt at New York's Belmont Park.

BBC Radio Five Live's racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght said: "The whole point of sport is for the best to meet the best and it's very rare in racing that this happens on a global basis .

"The people around Galileo will be pleased that their target is easier to achieve but they will be disappointed that Point Given will not be in the line-up against them."