Chop Chop

Chop Chop began her career with two wins, first in a one-mile maiden turf race in her debut at Ellis Park on Aug. 14, 2022, and then with a stakes win in her second start in another race on the grass in the one-mile Aristocrat Gaming Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 3.

Chop Chop switched to the main track for first time in her third start and finished second when beaten just a nose in a 14-horse field in the Grade 1, $500,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 7 for trainer Brad Cox. 

Her subsequent start was in the Netjets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Nov. 4. Sent off as the 2-1 favorite in the 12-horse field, Chop Chop finished last.

The filly returned for her 3-year-old campaign in 2023 with a runner-up finish in the Silverbulletday Stakes Presented by Fasig-Tipton, but then finished fifth of six in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes Presented by Fasig-Tipton and was taken out of the prep series for the Longines Kentucky Oaks. Instead, she made her next start in a listed turf stakes at Fair Grounds and finished a close third in March 2023.

Chop Chop did not race again until September, and competed in five consecutive allowance optional claiming races with one victory before trying stakes company again in February 2024. She won the one-mile Wintergreen Stakes at Turfway Park for her second overall stakes victory and then finished a good second in the 1 1/16-mile Latonia Stakes, both held on an all-weather main track.

Her next start came on turf in the 1 ½-mile Bewitch Stakes Presented by Keeneland Sales April 26, 2024, at Keeneland, and with Axel Concepcion in the irons, Chop Chop took over in early stretch and finished strong to capture her first graded stakes win.

In her next four starts, Chop Chop finished second, second, third, and fifth, all in route stakes on the turf. She cycled back to her best form when returning to Keeneland for the Rood & Riddle Dowager Stakes on Oct. 20. That Grade 3 stakes was held at the same 1 ½-mile distance as the Bewitch in the spring, and Chop Chop ran much the same race, sitting just off the early pace before taking the lead in midstretch. This time, she was all out to hold off rallying longshot Forever After All to prevail by a nose.

By City of Light, Kentucky-bred Chop Chop is out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Grand Sofia. She is from the first crop of City of Light, who won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. Grand Sofia is a half-sister (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to Grade 1 winner Rail Trip, a career earner of more than $1.5 million.