‘A legitimate freak’: Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip retired to stud after tendon injury ends racing career

Gold Trip will stand at stud in Victoria after connections opted to retire the 2022 Melbourne Cup winner who was one of the country’s best middle distance horses after making the trip out from Europe.

Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip has been retired to stud. Picture: Reg Ryan / Racing Photos.

Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip has been retired to stud after succumbing to a tendon injury which ended his career.

Connections made the decision not to push on with the seven-year-old after he missed the autumn, opting to stand him at stud instead, with trainer Ciaron Maher labelling him a “freak” galloper.

With weight for age form around the world and two Group 1s in Australia, Gold Trip will stand at the new Lovatsville Stallion Station in Victoria for $8,800 this coming season.

“He won a Melbourne Cup, was beaten a lip in the Caulfield Cup, was a weight-for-age Turnbull Stakes winner, could have won a Cox Plate and was elite in an Arc,” Maher said.

“He is a legitimate freak.”

It’s a win for the ages as Gold Trip takes out the 2022 Lexus Melbourne Cup!#MelbourneCup#MelbCupCarnivalpic.twitter.com/KPulSkQQm5

— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 1, 2022

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Purchased out of Europe by Jamie Lovett’s Australian Bloodstock, connections knocked back offers to sell Gold Trip following the injury, instead opting to stand him at stud themselves.

“What appealed to us in Gold Trip was his dynamic turn of foot, as we saw in that explosive performance in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (last year),” Lovett said.

"He was just captivating to watch in the closing stages."

Gold Trip's Turnbull Stakes victory won't be forgotten anytime soon 🙌#TheWrappic.twitter.com/Jd1zUldbNX

— Racing.com (@Racing) October 7, 2023

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“There is no doubt in my mind that he was beating the best 2000m field assembled in this country in the last 20 years and he beat them with his head on his chest.

“Weight-for-age is our measure for the elite, however when he was asked to carry weight in the big handicaps he had the class to do that too and I believe that is a quality that will resonate with breeder’s looking to breed a genuine racehorse.”

Gold Trip retires as a two-time Group 1 winner in Australia. Picture: Vince Caligiuri — Getty Images.

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Lovatsville’s Sam White said Gold Trip was a rare gem for Australian breeders, given his form in both the northern and hemispheres.

“It is quite rare that the Australasian breeding community get a chance to access horses who have performed so well in an Arc, arguably Europe’s premier race,” he said.

“Gold Trip had the versatility to race at the highest level here for multiple seasons demonstrating his class and toughness, while also displaying obvious speed where he flew past subsequent Cox Plate winner Romantic Warrior in the Turnbull.”

Originally published as ‘A legitimate freak’: Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip retired to stud after tendon injury ends racing career