When Peter Moody reached an agreement with Mark Chittick for I Wish I Win to race in Australia, the goal was modest—perhaps a victory or two in country cup races.

However, the son of Savabeel far surpassed expectations, retiring as a multiple Group 1 winner with just under $13 million in career earnings.

On Wednesday, Moody, along with his training partner Katherine Coleman and Chittick, announced I Wish I Win’s retirement after the gelding pulled up “jarry” following a trackwork session on Tuesday.

“Two weeks ago, he worked brilliantly, but yesterday, while he still worked well, he didn’t finish off as strongly as usual,” Moody explained.

“Katherine rides him in all his work and knows him inside out.

“We trotted him up at 3am this morning, and both Katherine and I could see it—he was a bit ‘jarry’ and not moving as fluently as he should.”

Rather than risk further issues, Moody and his team made the tough decision to retire him.

“We could have kept going, but I didn’t want to push him like that and have him run below his best or worse, hurt himself,” Moody said.

Scans revealed some changes in his knees—not serious, but enough to warrant caution.

“He’s been too good to us to take that risk,” he added.

I Wish I Win will now return to his birthplace at Waikato Stud in New Zealand to enjoy retirement.

Born with a leg deformity, he won two of his first nine starts in New Zealand before transferring to the Moody-Coleman stable.

Moody initially told Chittick that the gelding could target lucrative country cups such as the Cranbourne Cup, Sale Cup, and Kilmore Cup. Instead, I Wish I Win accumulated nearly $13 million in prize money.

One of Moody’s proudest moments was winning the T J Smith Stakes, a race he had long admired.

“I was lucky enough to win it with Black Caviar twice, Chain Of Lightning once, and him once,” he said.

I Wish I Win’s final race was a third-place finish behind Mr Brightside and Tom Kitten in the Group 1 C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield last month.

Moody admitted he would have liked the gelding to bow out on a winning note.

“I’ve always taken pride in my best horses going out on top—Black Caviar, Typhoon Tracy, Dissident all retired after Group 1 wins,” Moody said.

“I Wish I Win and Incentivise were two of the best I trained in my second stint. Incentivise finished second in a Melbourne Cup, and he ran third in the Orr.”

“I can’t complain, but I would have loved to see him go out at the peak of his game.”