Aerovelocity remained on-course for his career swansong in the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize (1200m) a week on Sunday after satisfying connections in a 1200m all-weather barrier trial at Sha Tin this morning.

The days of dominating such exercises from the front with bounding aplomb are now behind the eight-year-old and jockey Zac Purton was content to track fellow Chairman's Sprint Prize entrant Blizzard before rolling past in the closing stages to take second as another galloper with that G1 target in his sights, Thewizardofoz, finished ahead. The veteran crossed the line half a length second.

Aerovelocity did nothing to suggest his racecourse farewell will be as glorious as December's second win in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint, but the four-time G1winner did show that he is in a better place than when making all for an otherwise sub-par trial on 11 April.

"It was better than his last one – he had a bit of a setback going into his last trial and trialled accordingly," trainer Paul O'Sullivan said immediately after this morning's effort.

"He's not as good as he once was, he's rising nine years old, but he trialled well enough this morning where we think he can go to the races and acquit himself well.

"If he can run in the first four, that would be a good result – we give him a pat and bye-bye, away he goes. After this race, that's it. He'll definitely be retired."

Purton has ridden Aerovelocity in the last 20 of the Pins gelding's 24 starts, including those two Hong Kong Sprint victories and triumphs in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen and G1 KrisFlyer International Sprint.

"There's no doubt that he's not the horse that he once was," the jockey said. "He's been giving that impression for six months now. But it's not a vintage race this year.

"His last trial was way below par, but today I felt he was much better; he was much brighter in himself and he was having more of a play going out. He began better and I thought his trial today wasn't too bad, it felt like he was heading in the right direction and he gave me the feel that he could still surprise and pull out another decent run and set sail into the sunset.

"It's obviously quite sad knowing I'm only going to get to ride him one more time," he added. "It's been a great journey but I suppose at some stage you have to decide when enough is enough and I think it's the right time."