Giga Kick adds to Group 1 tally with gripping Sprint success
Reborn sprinter Giga Kick secured his third top tier triumph two-and-a-half years after his second with a gripping victory in the VRC Sprint at Flemington on Saturday.
The Clayton Douglas-trained gelding had shaped as a potential champion early in his career, winning his first five starts culminating in The Everest (1200m) of 2022.
But while he managed his first two Group 1 successes at starts nine and ten in Randwick’s All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m) in the late autumn of 2023, injuries conspired to dull his progress, restricting the six-year-old to just 18 starts before Saturday.
This preparation, however, he resumed with his first win since that Doomben 10,000 success, taking Caulfield Schillaci Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m), and in the toughness of a Heavy 9 at Flemington on Saturday, the hulking chestnut looked back to his best, fighting out a titanic duel with wet track demon Magic Time to prevail by 0.2 lengths.
The race was hit by drama before it began, with favourite Tentyris (Street Boss) ruled out under veterinary advice after the star Godolphin three-year-old colt had reared in the gates and put a leg over a partition.
Mark Zahra settled $5 shot Giga Kick in the middle of the nine-runner ruck behind the pacemakers, who including $2.70 favourite Joliestar (Zoustar), while Michael Dee sat out the back on $11 chance Magic Time.
With the field drifting towards the outside rail, Dee took Magic Time to the inside and she and Giga Kick – emerging through the centre – took up the running at the 150 metres. While Grahame Begg’s mare was a head in front at the 50 metres and appearing likely to slip away, Giga Kick gritted his teeth and fought back to score the bravest of wins.
The sprinter who put his sire Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice) on the map – before he was sold off to another part of the map entirely to stand in his present home of Tunisia – has now earned almost $15 million with the $1.8m first prize from his ninth win.
“He’s a champ, this horse, and I love him,” an elated Douglas told Racing.com.
“He’s done so much for my career, and he’s taken me everywhere with Group 1 wins in Sydney and Queensland.
“He’s done a tremendous job to get back to Group 1 level and I will be forever grateful for him.
“He just fronts up. He’s an older horse. He missed 12 months with injury.”
Giga Kick’s only previous heavy track outing had come the start before his All Aged victory in April 2023, when he ran I Wish I Win (Savabeel) to a 0.58 length second in Randwick’s TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), also on a Heavy 9.
“Champions do what champions do and he’s just a good horse,” Douglas said. “He was a young three-year-old running in the TJ Smith with I Wish I Win, and he seemed to handle it.”
Giga Kick gave Zahra his eighth and final winner of the Melbourne Cup carnival, sealing him the Ron Hutchinson Award as the week’s most successful jockey.
“It’s so good to see him back,” Zahra said.
“It was pretty tight up the straight. We were all hugged up on the outside there and it looked like Magic Time was going to hold me, but his last 50 [metres], he had a proper crack the old boy and got his head out at the right time.
“I wanted to be on the back of Joliestar but J-Mac pushed me out of the way so I had to get Jedibeel out of the way and the gap came and I was able to squeeze through there.
“Great win, great thrill.”
Bred by Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock, Giga Kick was entered but withdrawn from the 2021 Inglis HTBA Yearling Sale, and continued to race in the red and white stripes of his breeder’s Pinecliff Racing.
The six-time stakes winner is one of Scissor Kick’s only two Australian stakes winners – the other being Gold Coast Listed scorer Dzsenifer – and is the tenth and best of 11 named foals out of Rekindled Applause (Royal Applause), who had her last drop in 2021.
Aside from Giga Kick, Rekindled Applause is also the second dam of another Group 1 winner – and present day Yulong sire – Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice).
She’s also a half-sister to three stakes winners on three separate continents.
Rekindled Interest (Redoute’s Choice) won the MVRC Vase (Gr 2, 2040m) for Munz in 2010 and, on the same day a year later, ran third in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
Where We Left Off (Dr Devious) won the Monmouth Matchmaker Stakes (Gr 3, 1800m) in the US having also bagged a pair of Listed events, while Porticcio (Lomitas) landed a Listed race in Toulouse, France.