Cover image courtesy Ashlea Brennan
Taking a trip into the city from your Hunter Valley farm to see a horse you raised running in the world’s richest race on turf sounds like the makings of a great weekend.
Add a healthy dose of sentiment if you happened to have nursed the horse through a bout of colic, and you have an emotional weekend.
Watch the horse win in defiant style to the cheers of 46,000 spectators, for an impossibly young trainer and a dedicated owner/breeder - well then you have a weekend never to forget.
Sent off at $21, it was something of an upset when Giga Kick lowered the colours of the mighty Nature Strip (Nicconi) in the 2022 The TAB Everest on Saturday afternoon. For a horse still four days away from his third birthday it was a monumental achievement.
Watch: Giga Kick winning the 2022 The TAB Everest
For Mike Fleming and his wife Kate, it’s been crunch time back at Bhima in the Hunter Valley; with foaling nearly finished, they’ve been busy organising their stock ahead of preparations for the 2023 yearling sales season.
They’ll be glad they allowed themselves more than just a day trip, as Giga Kick’s victory made for an incredible weekend that punctuated a busy time for the couple - and provided a great reminder of why they work so tirelessly in the pursuit of producing racehorses.
“It was an unbelievable day, and amazing to see that many people back at Randwick,” Fleming reflected.
“It was an unbelievable day, and amazing to see that many people back at Randwick.” - Mike Fleming
“It is just amazing what that race has done in generating public interest. It was a great atmosphere and a really good day of racing.”
There was indeed an electric atmosphere at Randwick on Saturday as the allure of a novel and highly lucrative race met a welcome break in Sydney’s recent downpours and an ever-increasing thirst for fashion to draw a youthful, 50-year record crowd to the scene.
Adding in no small measure to that charge from about 4.20pm AEDT was Fleming and his wife as they watched Giga Kick storm over the top of his rivals to claim the $6.2 million first prize.
Kate and Mike Fleming
A perfect record
Led through a flawless, five-race campaign by his young trainer Clayton Douglas, Giga Kick broke his maiden at the first attempt back in February this year, and four starts later found himself mixing it with battle-hardened, elite-level winners in a race like no other.
He began his 3-year-old campaign with a hard-fought victory in the G3 Vain S., a race so often captured by future top-flight winners. He then justified odds-on favouritism in the G2 Danehill S. at the start of this month - again showing his grit that day to repel the late thrust of Buenos Noches (Supido).
Craig Williams and Clayton Douglas | Image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
So, for all that he is lightly raced, and went into Saturday’s feature as a true outsider, the clues were there to see. He put it all together in mounting his late challenge in The Everest, and in doing so showed the same fighting spirit which saw him conquer an unlikely battle two years ago to the month.
In October of his yearling year, Giga Kick was fighting for his life, and any thought of him fighting out a finish was far from Fleming’s mind.
“He is very lucky to be here. A lot of horses don’t come through colic like he did, so it just shows you how tough and resilient he was.
“He (Giga Kick) is very lucky to be here. A lot of horses don’t come through colic like he did, so it just shows you how tough and resilient he was.” - Mike Fleming
“There’s not too many horses that get through it without surgery, but he was one in a million. The vet attended and he got through it with a lucky escape.”
Taking a chance
Giga Kick was born at Arrowfield and arrived at Bhima as a weanling. Fleming admits that he was far from a standout.
“He turned up at the farm, we put him out with the mob and he was just one of the crew, he never really stood out. But, he just improved every day, every week, every month since,” said Fleming.
“He coped with his prep to head off to the HTBA Sale very well, and it became obvious through that prep that there was something in him.”
“He (Giga Kick) coped with his prep to head off to the (Inglis) HTBA Sale very well, and it became obvious through that prep that there was something in him.” - Mike Fleming
But Giga Kick never made the yearling sales in 2020, and it was nothing to do with his colic episode - having been nursed back to health, he was well-recovered in time for that prep. Instead, he was kept to be raced in his breeder’s famous white and red stripes, a decision which Fleming credits to Dean Hawthorne, bloodstock manager at Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock.
“... he was going to be off to the HTBA Sale with Middlebrook Lodge as we didn’t have a draft that year,” Fleming said.
“He was a horse that came in and prepped very well and Dean Hawthorne probably has to take a lot of the credit; he said, ‘He’s by an uncommercial sire out of an old mare, we’re probably going to take him to a sale, he’s probably not going to be very well sought-after.’”
Mike Fleming, Harry Mitchell and Dean Hawthorne | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
For owner/breeder Munz, it made sense that Giga Kick had more value to him than he was likely to achieve at the sale, so the team thought it would be a shame to let him go.
“The mare is from a family that he’s had for a long time. So, Dean Hawthorne made the decision to withdraw him from the sale and put him into the racing team to have some fun with him.
“They put him with Clayton to see if he (Giga Kick) was any good, so it’s a great story both for the horse and a young trainer on the up who is obviously very talented at what he does.
"They put him with Clayton (Douglas) to see if he (Giga Kick) was any good, so it’s a great story both for the horse and a young trainer on the up who is obviously very talented at what he does." - Mike Fleming
“It’s great for Jonathan, he’s put so much into GSA Bloodstock and into the racing game… It’s a great story all round.”
All before him
It’s a family that has been successful for Munz, with Giga Kick’s dam, the Listed-winning Rekindled Applause (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}), having previously produced Lago Ovation (Encosta De Lago) who is the dam of G1 CF Orr S. winner turned Yulong stallion Alabama Express.
Alabama Express | Standing at Yulong
Rekindled Applause herself is also a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Rekindled Interest (Redoute’s Choice), who also placed in the G1 Cox Plate.
The Group 2-placed Rekindled Power (Redoute's Choice) is also a half-brother to Giga Kick, as is the G3 Carbine Club S. runner-up Shuffle Up (Redoute's Choice).
“It’s great for Jonathan to be having great success with a breed that he’s put so much into,” said Fleming.
Considering his family and how much he’s achieved already in just a handful of starts before his third birthday, there’s no exaggeration when Fleming marks him as a potential superstar - afterall, he did defeat one on Saturday.
“To have had five starts before he’s physically three, win them all, win The Everest… he’s done everything that’s been put in front of him. He’s been very well looked after and very well placed, a lot of credit should go to Clayton for that.
“To have had five starts before he’s (Giga Kick) physically three, win them all, win The Everest… he’s done everything that’s been put in front of him.” - Mike Fleming
“He looks like he’ll be a star of the future, he’s only young and he’s got his whole life in front of him.”
