Kick in teeth for Giga’s chance to gain revenge
Clayton Douglas says the Giga Kick camp is “dying for a rematch” with star mare Imperatriz, but revealed his champion sprinter has so far been unable to return to trackwork with his “strange injury.”
The 2022 Everest winner had been meant to be back in work by now, but Douglas said he remained confined to light walking exercises on the treadmill.
A crucial medical scan in the next two weeks will determine the immediate racing future of the freak sprinter who suffered injury when finishing third behind Imperatriz in a controversial run which derailed Giga Kick’s 2023 spring.
“He’s on the treadmill, he’s only doing light work until we
get his next scan,” Douglas revealed.
“We were hoping the initial scan was going to be OK and he could resume trackwork, but the injury hadn’t quite healed like we would have liked. We are in a holding pattern at the moment. We are on the back foot so far.”
Douglas said it was possible Giga Kick could miss the entire autumn carnival and then return for the Brisbane winter to springboard into a spring tilt which would include an Everest mission.
But he is still not ruling out the autumn carnival, even though he knows Giga Kick is in a race against time with a deep-seated muscle injury to his hindquarters.
“We are dying for a rematch with Imperatriz at some
point,” Douglas said. “But it is possible the scans could come back and Giga Kick still won’t quite be ready.
“If we were having this discussion in two or three weeks’ time, we would definitely know what we are doing.
“But I am sitting on the fence at the moment.
“It’s an injury that we can’t physically see.
“He’s injured muscle off his third trochanter bone, which is a strange and unique injury.
“We are just hoping that his next scan is fine and he can resume training at the start of February.”
Douglas said the medical advice was that the injury would not stop Giga Kick returning to his brilliant best and it was simply a case of giving the crack sprinter time to heal.