Gailo Chop is clearly the horse to beat in the Group 1 Australian Cup in a fortnight following another dominant win in this afternoon’s Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield.
Trainer Darren Weir has been thrilled with the horse’s form this time and he put the writing on the wall with an easy win in the Group 3 Carlyon Cup (1800m) first-up a fortnight ago.
Jumping from the gates well, jockey Mark Zahra was able to cross the field with ease and took up the running across the back straight; setting a reasonable tempo in transit alongside the likes of Lord Fandango and Single Gaze.
Leading the field into the final straight, Gailo Chop ($2.40) went through the gears and continued to open a gap on his rivals; hitting the line to comfortably beat Single Gaze ($5.50), with a further gap back to Hartnell ($4.20).
Zahra was pleased with the horse’s performance and believes that he will only improve into the Australian Cup.
“He’s just flying at the moment, the Weir camp’s just got him spot-on and he’s just a gem to ride because he speedy out of the gates, gets there relaxed and you can just sort of slowly start stepping up from the 600-700m,” Zahra said.
“When I hit the top of the straight I thought there is no way anyone is getting past me today.
“The best part about him is he can just do anything. He’s good out in front, but he can sit off them too so at this age for Weiry to have him flying, it’s just a great effort.”
Weir said that he could not be more pleased with Gailo Chop leading into the Australian Cup.
“He’s a great horse with a great racing style,” the master trainer said after the Peter Young Stakes.
“Just watching him then, he looked to be really enjoying that. When Mark asked him to go on the corner he really lengthened and it was a terrific win and onto the Australian Cup now.
“He went at a good, strong gallop. Beautiful bring-on gallop – he needed a good, strong gallop to be fit enough for the 2000m in two weeks and I couldn’t be happier with him really.”
Gailo Chop has firmed into $3.60 favouritism in our 2018 Australian Cup market following this afternoon’s dominant win.