The holiday is over for Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip, who will this week start his build up towards his autumn campaign.
Tuesday will mark five weeks since the six-year-old won Australia’s most famous race and with his major autumn assignment – the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes – just four months away, the time has come for him to get back to work.
“He’s an entire and these stallions, particularly Northern Hemisphere ones, wouldn’t want any longer off,” Australian Bloodstock’s Jamie Lovett said.
“Now it’s just a case of building him up and getting him ready for the Queen Elizabeth (Stakes).”
The son of Outstrip will complete a pre-training phase before trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace tighten the screws in the new year.
He returns to work in good health but his spell was not without one minor hiccup, albeit one that was much better flaring while he was in the spelling paddock.
“Ironically, he had a little foot abscess burst through just after the Cup, which could have been a disaster if it had surfaced any earlier,” Lovett said.
“But it burst through and cleaned up like they do.
“He spelled well and he’s such a dude, the horse. Nothing phases him, he’s got a lovely disposition and temperament and everyone that you talk to that’s around him says he’s a pleasure to be around.”
Gold Trip’s autumn campaign is being geared around the 2000-metre Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on April 9, but the path he takes to get there is still to be determined.
“He showed (in spring) that the further he went the better he got, so he’s probably not one I’d want to be kicking off at a short trip, I’d rather have him wound up a bit,” Lovett said.
“Maybe he could have one run down there (Melbourne), it could be a Peter Young (Stakes) or something, depending on how firm Caulfield is, and then second-up into something up here into a Queen Elizabeth.
“But we’ll have to sit down and have a good look at it.”