‘You’re riding Giga Kick’: The phone call that gave Dylan Gibbons his $20m Everest chance

Dylan Gibbons was sitting down, doing some form for the races, last week when his phone rang, and when he saw it was Pinecliff racing manager Rod Douglas he got excited.

“I thought straight away when I saw Rocket’s number, good, they’re going to run in the filly [Flight Stakes winner Global Goal] in the Spring Champion,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons had got his latest Group 1 on Global Goal in the Flight Stakes the weekend before for the Pinecliff team, but Douglas had another surprise for him.

“What are you riding in The Everest?” Douglas asked.

“Nothing,” Gibbons replied.

“Good you’re riding Giga Kick then. Is that, OK?”

“Absolutely,” Gibbons said, and the conversation ended with no mention of Global Goal.

“I got straight off the call, rang mum and dad, then my grandparents and girlfriend. Before ringing my manager to tell him I had an Everest ride, and to stop looking,” Gibbons said. “I didn’t even tell him what it was. He had to ring me back to ask.

“It’s a great ride to get because he has run in The Everest twice, won the first time and ran second and should have won the other.

“I know he is getting a bit older, but you know his best would have him in the finish.

“A little rain around doesn’t hurt either.”

Gibbons had been on a tough run for the past year and was happy to get the job done on Global Goal, who he had been with since his maiden.

It is a win like that that opens a few doors.

“You just need to make the most of those chances and you don’t know what can happen,” Gibbons said.

“I was hoping to ride The Everest, but now I’m there with real hope because of Global Goal.

“She is going to the top of my list of Group 1s, but if Giga wins the Everest she will lose that spot.”

Giga Kick is a $34 chance after being down the track in the Moir Stakes and Manikato Stakes in his two spring appearances, but was TJ Smith runner-up in the autumn after winning the Champions Sprint at Flemington last year on a heavy track.

“He handles soft ground, which is going to be an advantage, and he has been one of the best sprinters in the country for the last few years,” Gibbons said.

“I’m confident if I get it right on him, we will get pretty close.”