Multiple Group One winner Gailo Chop will be racing for his career when he returns to the track as a 10 year-old in the spring.
The $4.4 million prize money earner, a winner of 13 of his 37 starts, has returned to work with Matthew Williams, however any sign shown he does not want to be a racehorse anymore will result in retirement.
Williams was disappointed in Gailo Chop’s two last-placed finishes in Sydney on wet tracks during the autumn when he felt the gelding was in better shape than those performances indicated.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions Williams was unable to travel to Sydney and relied on information from others to get a handle on Gailo Chop.
Gailo Chop has been plagued by tendon problems and had stints on the sidelines after competing at the Dubai World Cup meeting in March 2016 and another after running second to Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in April 2018.
But since returning to work Gailo Chop has been getting around like a three-year-old.
“He’s really sound and well at the moment,” Williams said.
“So we’ll press on and let the old boy tell us.
“We’ll look to have a crack at the Makybe Diva Stakes, Underwood Stakes and Caulfield Stakes, but after a couple of runs if he’s not shaping up well we may then have to look at retirement.
“He might be saying ‘I’m sound, but I’m over racing’.”
Gailo Chop finished third in the Underwood Stakes at Caulfield last spring and later in the year took Williams on his first trip to Perth, finishing second in the Group One Kingston Town Classic at Ascot in December.
