Douglas waits to decide Giga Kick’s hoop
MORNINGTON trainer Clayton Douglas has plenty of time to find a new jockey for The Everest winner Giga Kick’s next start in the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes in Sydney.
Top Melbourne jockey Craig Williams has ridden Giga Kick to three wins, including The Everest triumph, from five mounts but he will be out of action for several weeks with a broken collarbone sustained in a fall at Flemington last Saturday.
Douglas’s phone is likely to ring hot with offers from alternative riders in the coming days but he said connections would not decide Giga Kick’s new jockey until the gelding has a jumpout at Mornington on Wednesday week.
The jumpout will be part of Douglas’s usual routine with Giga Kick leading into the April 1 event in Sydney.
“He’ll do his normal thing where we’ll give him a jumpout 10 days before then head back up there,” Douglas said. “It’s a nice planned prep.” Giga Kick is a $4.50 equal favourite in TAB’s ‘all-in’ betting on the TJ Smith Stakes along with brilliant Newmarket Handicap winner In Secret.
Giga Kick held his place at the top of the TJ Smith Stakes market despite his first-up defeat in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) at Randwick on March 4.
The three-year-old struck trouble at the start of the $500,000 race but thrilled Douglas with his effort to finish third, a length behind Passive Aggressive, which is also owned by Giga Kick’s owner Jonathan Munz. “He pulled up super from the run. He hasn’t left a skerrick of feed since,” Douglas said.
The TJ Smith Stakes, run as part of The Championships at Randwick, often goes ahead on wet ground.