With stable numbers at a premium, many trainers will use the luxury of a pre-trainer early in a preparation to ease the burden of getting their charges ready.
A month or five weeks of light work before returning to their trainer short circuits the time it takes to get a horse up to galloping, then the trialling stage before a return to racing.
But Clayton Douglas is different, especially with his star sprinter Giga Kick, who returned to the trainer’s Mornington stable at the start of the year to commence his build-up for a racing return.
Currently Giga Kick is going through the ‘pre-training’ campaign and is still a way off galloping on the track in preparation for a return to the trials.
“I do everything with him,” Douglas said.
“I’ve got a treadmill, there’s a pool, there’s a water-walker just up the road. I just do a bit of alternative work with him just to keep him active and busy.”
Douglas said he had not mapped out a program for Giga Kick but doubts the gelding will be ready to race in Melbourne during the Autumn.
His campaign may commence in the T J Smith Stakes at Randwick in April and extend to Queensland during the Winter.
“He did well in his break, as you would expect as he’s a bit older now,” Douglas said.
“There’s nothing planned out for him yet, but he’ll most likely head up to Sydney, but we’ll just poke through the next five or six weeks and get back to the jump-outs and take it from there.
“He’s carrying a bit of condition which is good. He raced right through to the end of the Spring, and he’s come back really well.”
Douglas said he was pleased with how Giga Kick handled his four-run campaign last year after having 12 months off racing through injury.
While winless in the campaign, Giga Kick collected almost $3.2 million in prize money.
“You never know when you’re coming off an injury how they’re going to perform and how many runs you’re going to get out of them in the one prep,” Douglas said.
“I thought he performed well in all his runs. He was a bit big first-up and he was wide on a hot speed, second-up he run well off a steady tempo, not beaten far, then he ran second in The Everest and then even in his last run up the straight at Flemington I thought was credible, he got bottled up and found the line well and he seemed to come though it well.
“You don’t want to push a horse like him too far along. He had his four runs, he’s back in and he’s ready to go again.”
Douglas said extending Giga Kick’s racing career to beyond the 15 starts he has currently had that has netted seven wins and $12.8 million in prize money, was his focus.
“You forget the prize money he’s racing for,” Douglas said.
“He only has to win one, or run well in one, and he’s paid for the year.
“I don’t know whether I’ll give him three trials or two, but that could determine where he kicks off, and he could go to the TJ Smith first-up.
“It will all be determined by how he comes up and if he’s nice and fit and well, he will head to the races and if he needs an extra couple of weeks, we’ll give it to him.”
