Dylan Gibbons continued his impressive late-season form with a polished ride aboard Brave One in the Quayclean Handicap (1300m) at Randwick.
The victory marked Gibbons’ fifth Saturday metropolitan win since returning from shoulder surgery in late May. Although the layoff disrupted his rhythm, Gibbons said the time off gave him a chance to mentally reset and review his race tactics.
“When I had that time off I had a lot of time to think,” Gibbons said.
“You replay races in your mind all the time and lots of the time – although in Australian racing three-deep isn’t the place to be – it’s better than being three-back and one-off (the fence) in a slow race and over-racing.
“From those wide alleys you can really only beat yourself.
“It obviously helps when you’ve got a horse with ability but I think that showed today because he was able to cruise across, have cover for the first half and then from there on in it was a matter of point and shoot.”
Now based in Sydney after moving from Newcastle, Gibbons has built a strong rapport with the Hawkes Racing team, regularly riding trackwork for the stable at Rosehill. That familiarity paid dividends when Brave One drew awkwardly but still powered to a 1-3/4 length win.
“They’ve got one instruction and that’s to ride the horse and keep the horse happy. It is pretty easy when your only plan is to do exactly that,” Gibbons said.
“There were no instructions from out wide. I trusted the horse and it paid off. I gave him a chance to go and win it and he did just that.”
Brave One has previously been tested in stakes company, and stable representative Steve Thompson confirmed ambitions to return to that level remain on the radar.
“We will just go through his grades but he is above average,” Thompson said.
“We will try to get his rating points up and then probably look at getting some Listed or black-type into him later.”
Brave One ($4 favourite) defeated Secure ($5) by 1-3/4 lengths, with Lunaite ($5) a further three-quarters of a length behind in third.
Punters tracking Brave One’s path toward black-type races after his Quayclean Handicap win can compare odds and specials on the top-rated betting apps in Australia.