Star mare Sunlight is recovering after undergoing surgery on a hind leg after an accident in the spelling paddock.

The multiple Group One winner required surgery to remove a chip from the splint bone on her off-hind leg.

Trainer Tony McEvoy ordered X-rays after she was found to have filling on the cannon bone.

Sunlight was sharing a paddock with her sister Sisstar at the time of the incident but McEvoy, who trains both horses in partnership with his son Calvin, is none the wiser how the injury happened.

He said the surgery had gone well.

"Everything went very straight forward and she is now back on her feet and happy," McEvoy said on Twitter.

McEvoy had been planning an autumn campaign starting in the Lightning Stakes at Flemington in February, but with a six week recuperation period, that race is ruled out.

The setback also means Sunlight will not go to the Dubai World Cup meeting in March, however Royal Ascot in June is still a possibility.