After spending the past two years in a lucrative sprinting mode, I Wish I Win(NZ) (Savabeel) will return to racing in 2025 with a readjusted aim of establishing himself over longer trips.
Co-trainer Peter Moody said I Wish I Win will return to work next week with the plan to test him out over further in a campaign which could culminate in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick over 2000m.
“We’ve had a couple of cracks at sprinting, he’s been very good at it but now we’ll put him over some longer distances, which he’s been good at before, with the idea to stretch him out even further to 2000m,” Moody said.
“He’ll now go over distances he’s bred to run over and they have always looked as if they would suit.”
When I Wish I Win joined Moody’s stable in the spring of 2022, he finished an unlucky fifth in the Toorak Handicap (1600m) before he won the Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill.
They are the longest trips I Wish I Win has been over and since then Moody and Katherine Coleman have trained him as a sprinter with great success, as he claimed Group 1 wins in the 2023 T.J. Smith Stakes and 2024 Kingsford-Smith Stakes.
He also finished second in the 2023 Everest and Black Caviar Lightning and in 2024 did likewise in the Doomben 10,000, as well as finishing third in the Manikato Stakes and T.J. Smith Stakes.
At his most recent start, I Wish I Win finished last in The Everest and there was talk of retirement, but Moody said he has been bucking his brands off in the paddock.
At this stage, Moody plans to get him ready for the G1 C.F. Orr Stakes (February 8) and the Futurity Stakes (February 22), both over 1400m at Caulfield and from there he hopes for a spot in the 2025 All-Star Mile at Flemington on March 8.
Other races he is looking at are the G1 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on March 22 and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 12.
“We will put him back into work and get him up and rolling. If everything is alright, then we will push on and if there’s an issue we haven’t discovered yet, then we wouldn’t hesitate to retire him,” he said.
I Wish I Win is a six-year-old gelding by Savabeel and has had 24 starts for seven wins and 13 placings with winnings of just under $13 million.
