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| Sumita Pawar |
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Trainers Price and Kent are gearing up for another shot at the Australian Guineas. Meanwhile, Clayton Douglas, the trainer of Giga Kick, is taking a patient approach with the gelding's return to the racetrack.
Despite being back in work for almost a month, Giga Kick has been out of the scene since finishing third in the Gr.2 McEwen Stakes at Moonee Valley last September due to a hip injury. Unfortunately, this setback has also dashed his hopes of racing in the upcoming autumn season.
“It was a very a unique injury, but I’m glad we found it,” Douglas said.
“Hopefully he’s fine under full stress, but we won’t know until we try him.”
While Clayton Douglas is not very optimistic about Giga Kick's participation in the Queensland Winter Carnival, he is still open to the idea of leveraging the warmer climate to get the gelding race-ready.
Instead, Douglas is focusing on the Melbourne and Sydney Spring Carnivals as potential targets for Giga Kick's return to competitive racing.
“He’s been back at my place for nearly a month now,” Douglas said.
“He’s been on the treadmill and the water walker, just doing a bit of conditioning work.
“We’ve obviously missed the boat with the T J Smith and all the autumn stuff, and whether we go to Brisbane, I don’t feel we will.
“He’ll have a few trials and we’ll get him to a certain stage and the spring will be our focus, but how I get there, I haven’t worked out what he does.
“Maybe we could give him a run in the Sir John Monash at Caulfield in July. It’s 1100 metres, weight-for-age, just as a bit of tune-up before the spring.
“There are all those sorts of options, but I’m just happy to get him back into work.
“I’m not going to worry about the last 12 months, I’ll just look forward with him.
“At the moment he’s ticking all the boxes, so hopefully he keeps going that way.”