Gibson duo take it easy

Richard Gibson hopped off a flight from Hong Kong and was trackside at Meydan in good time to see his stable’s Gold Mount and Wishful Thinker undertake a light canter together on the dirt track.

“They’ve come a long way so the build up to these races will be light work, you won’t be seeing any track headlines from the Gibson stable pre-race,” he said.

Wishful Thinker, with four wins from his last five starts, will line up in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m, turf) down the straight. The gelding drew post 13 at this afternoon’s barrier allocation, closest to the historically more favourable stands’ side. Chief threat Blue Point drew eight.

“The experts tell me that’s a good place to be,” Gibson said. “Wishful Thinker didn’t race that long ago and with both horses it’s just a matter of stretching them out and keeping them comfortable and happy.”

Gibson is back at Meydan with a challenger for the first time since Akeed Mofeed’s fifth in the 2014 G1 Dubai World Cup.

He is sending Gold Mount down a rare route for a Hong Kong galloper, the 3200m G2 Dubai Gold Cup – Hong Kong’s longest races are 2400m and there are only three of those each season. The six-year-old was allotted barrier 10 of 10 earlier this week.

“It’s difficult in Hong Kong because we don’t have those staying races as prep, but I was pleased with his trial 10 days ago on dirt. He’s not a big horse, he doesn’t need a lot of work but I think we’ve got enough miles in his legs,” Gibson said.

“He’s a stalker, he’s sort of a crescendo horse so the draw is not an issue and if there’s plenty of pace on it will suit.”

“We think we’ve put the horses in the right races and we think they’ll run clean races.”

 

Source: https://racingnews.hkjc.com/english/2019/03/27/southern-legend-limbers-up-for-hard-almond-test/