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By Ray Hickson

There will be nerves but there’s no way Clayton Douglas isn’t going to enjoy the ride his TAB Everest winner Giga Kick is taking him on as he eyes another headline sprint at Randwick on Saturday.

Clayton Douglas (Pic: Bradley Photos)

Scenes after the Everest, with Douglas, 28, bouncing around along the fence celebrating the biggest win of his career, are still fresh and it’s a feeling he’s not going to let go of even though the expectation is much higher.

“Horses like this don’t come into my barn very often,’’ he said.

“People can train for years and not get a horse like him. I may never put my hands on another one like him so I’ve got to embrace it.

“I’m enjoying the experience so hopefully everything can go well and I can train my first Group 1 winner.”

Giga Kick, or Conor as Douglas calls him, has just seven starts against his name and despite what he’s achieved so far Douglas said “it’s crazy to think” he has the favourite for the Group 1 $3m Furphy TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).

There’ll surely be a rally of support for three time defending champion Nature Strip but he’s confident Giga Kick, $4 with TAB on Tuesday, can bring him down again.

It’s 1-all between the two sprinters who are at different stages of their career, Giga Kick is three and Nature Strip eight, and Douglas has a healthy respect for the sprint king.

“Nature Strip has had a below par run first-up in the Lightning but he is going for four straight in the TJ and is going to be hard to get past,’’ he said.

“Our bloke still needs to do it whereas Nature Strip has been there and done it. Hopefully we can step up to the plate.

“It’s great to have a horse like him, he’s done nothing wrong his whole career and it’s going to be a phenomenal race.”

Douglas elected to begin Giga Kick’s TJ campaign in the Group 2 Challenge Stakes (1000m) on March 4 and he caught everyone’s eye with a slashing third behind Passive Aggressive.

He clocked 32.33 for his last 600m (Punter’s Intelligence) after he gave away a huge start due to stumbling out of the gates and being squeezed between horses on either side.

“Those two horses jumped a bit awkwardly and bumped into him,’’ he said.

“He is a horse that hasn’t always begun brilliantly but I think it was just the circumstances. He’s not going to be able to do it in this race so hopefully he can get away cleanly and get into a good position.

“To run them to just over a length was a good effort and stepping up to 1200m second-up suits us.

“I feel like that run brought him on nicely. He was pretty forward going into his first-up run and took nice improvement out of it.”

Since the Challenge, Giga Kick has contested a jump out and he worked on Tuesday morning to complete his build up for the TJ Smith.

Giga Kick runs third in the Challenge Stakes

Zac Purton takes over from the injured Craig Williams and having drawn just to Nature Strip’s outside Douglas is hoping to find a spot somewhere around the middle of the pack.

“It’s going to be a fast run six, it’s going to separate the men from the boys. Hopefully we can get into a nice enough spot,’’ he said.

“Zac is a superstar, and as we saw the other day he came to Sydney and won two Group 1s on horses he’d never sat on before. I’ve got a lot of confidence Zac’s going to get the job done, I won’t be giving him too many instructions.

“It’ll be all about how the horse begins and where he ends up in the run but hopefully he can begin cleanly and give Zac an easy ride.”

All the fields, form and replays for Day 1 of The Star Championships at Randwick