GIGA KICK’S PHENOMENAL EVEREST WIN

When word filtered through that the once highly touted stallion Scissor Kick was now standing in Tunisia, it was suggested that the horse’s breeder, the ultra-wealthy Victorian breeder Jonathan Munz, would honour the 11-year-old by naming a filly a colt with an African link.

After all it was the failed stallion that gave Munz the most significant victory as a breeder and owner when Scissor Kick’s three-year-old son Giga Kick picked up more than $6m for winning The Everest at Randwick last Saturday.

Giga Kick, whose actually three-year-old birth date is Wednesday, was bred by Munz from his 22-year-old now retired mare Rekindled Applause (Royal Applause x Rekindled Affair).

Munz bred Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice x Back  Pass) and raced him in partnership with Arrowfield Stud where the stallion stood after his racing career ended in 2016 after 13 wins which included the Group 3 Up and Coming Stakes (1300m) and two Listed victories at 1200m.

After Scissor Kick, which stood four seasons at Arrowfield and served only 29 mares in his last year, was shuttled to France in 2019, he never returned to Australia.

He first shuttled to Haras d’Etreham in France in 2017.

After Giga Kick’s victory in the world’s richest race on turf, the big questions were being asked where is the stallion now standing.

Morocco and Tunisia were the popular choices.

But the stallion definitely stood at Haras El Jadida in Morocco this year for the equivalent of $875. He stood at $16,500 in his first three years and then $11,000 in his fourth and final year at Arrowfield.

Rodney “Rocket” Douglas, who is racing manager for Munz’s Mornington Peninsula racing operation Pinecliff Racing, said it had been amazing to see the Giga Kick story unfold.

Even more amazing is that his 27-year-old nephew Clayton Douglas has now trained the gelding to an unbeaten record of five wins and more than $7m in prizemoney.

And throw in the fact that Rekindled Applause threw nothing of significance in five matings with Scissor Kick’s sire Redoute’s Choice at $100,000-plus service fees, it just reinforces the older Douglas’ belief that breeding horses is often a crazy and unpredictable game with no guarantees.

Douglas said that while they thought Giga Kick would perform well in The Everest, they didn’t expect him to do what he did.

“I always thought he’d be a good horse but I didn’t think he’d be doing this as a three-year-old,” Douglas said.

“But he is not three yet, and is three on Wednesday. He is a two-year-old and has to strengthen and mature and I’ve always had that in the back of my mind but you are a bit gun-shy thinking you are going to beat hardened seasoned, Group 1 horses.

“He is about 500 kilos and Nature Strip is about 600 kilos. Not only did he beat them but another 50 metres and he wins by a length or more.

“It was an amazing performance.”

And the Giga Kick camp got more confidence on their venture to Sydney, not only from jockey Craig Williams who opted to bypass the Caulfield Cup for The Everest ride, but also premier jockey Damien Oliver who boldly predicted the youngster would finish in the first four.

“They should know, but I didn’t know what to expect,” Douglas said.

“At the half-way mark after he was back there after bombing the start I was hoping he wasn’t going to run at the rear and make us look like idiots. I couldn’t see because of the crowd but my son Harry who is a fair bit bigger than me, he his 6’2 and he slapped me on the back of the head at the 100 and said he is going to win and then I jumped up and had a look and could see him coming.

“Next minute we all erupted.”

Giga Kick will undergo an examination by Munz’s vet David McKellar on Friday and then will probably do some work next Tuesday and if all is going well as expected, the gelding will accept for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Derby Day, Saturday, October 29.

Douglas said if everything was all right with the horse and he draws a favourable barrier, he will go to the $2m race, other options include the Darley Champions Sprint (1200m) the following week.

“Or if we are not happy with him we’ll put him in the paddock,” he said.

“There are three options and we are not frightened of the older horses.

“When we looked at him on Sunday he looked better than he did going into the race and was as bright as a button.

“In his Melbourne runs he has got on his Sydney leg a couple of times so he might be better the Sydney way, who knows?

“He has won one Everest and it won’t be the last big one he wins.”

Douglas said it was amazing that there least thought of yearling has turned out to be Munz’s best horse ever.

He said they’d had horses like Rekindled Interest, and what he described as some seriously good horse like Group 1 winners Shoals, Toffee Tongue and Danestorm, and then a stallion like Scissor Kick produces his best horse.

And for Clayton Douglas, the victory was like winning Tattslotto with his 10 per cent share of the prizemoney, and it also gives his emerging training career a huge boost.

“He gets 600 and something thousand dollars and it will help to pay his house off,” Douglas said.

“He got texts from Lloyd Williams and all the big wigs saying how great it was and how well you conducted yourself and it was a great training performance.

“He is away now and it will make his training career. And he deserves it. He is a good kid.”

And while many of the Douglas clan were trackside, Clayton’s father Vic, a former successful trainer, said he had not felt like that before when he witnessed firsthand Giga Kick’s win.

“Winning three Grand Annuals had nothing on that,” Vic Douglas said.