Nearly two years have passed since the five-time Australian stakes winner Giga Kick finished first, making his appearance in Friday’s Group 1 Goodwood Stakes at Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide all the more intriguing.
Giga Kick is best known for winning the $9.3 million Everest Stakes - the world’s richest sprint - at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney in 2022. The victory was the last of a five-race winning streak at the beginning of his career. Giga Kick has since won two of 10 starts, including a head loss in the $13.3 million Everest Stakes last October.
The $639,700 Goodwood Stakes, run at six furlongs, will be Giga Kick’s first start since a seventh-place finish by slightly more than 2 1/4 lengths in a field of 12 in the Group 1 Champions Sprint at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne last November.
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Race goals for his comeback have changed in recent months. The Goodwood, which drew a field of 13, is not the toughest top-level sprint in Australia this year.
As of Thursday morning, Giga Kick was the 6-5 favorite to win for the first time since the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 in Brisbane in May 2023. A stalker, Giga Kick starts from post 12 and will be ridden by Mark Zahra, who was aboard for the Everest and Champions Sprint last October and November.
Zahra knows Giga Kick’s competition very well. He rode the 4-year-old filly Charm Stone to a come-from-behind win at 10-1 in the Group 1 Sangster Stakes at six furlongs at Morphettville on April 26. In that race, Charm Stone, 9-1 in early betting for the Goodwood, finished slightly more than a neck in front of Ameena, another closer who is part of the Goodwood field.
All of the leading runners in the Goodwood are closers, including course specialist Reserve Bank, who has won two sprint stakes for Southern Hemisphere 3-year-olds at Morphettville since mid-April. He was sixth of nine in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes at six furlongs against older horses at Moonee Valley on March 22, a trip with a stretch run of a mere 190 yards.
The Morphettville track, which has a stretch run of approximately 350 yards, better suits his style.
Morphettville has a nine-race program that begins at 10:17 p.m. Eastern or 7:17 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.
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