NATURE Strip looked on target to land a second consecutive A$15 million The Everest at Randwick in front of over 46,000 people on Saturday.

The favourite for the six-furlong sprint sat outside of the leading Eduardo before surging ahead to put a length into his rivals as he hit the furlong mark. Cue the unbeaten three-year-old Giga Kick. Near last on the bend jockey Craig Williams angled into the clear allowing Giga Kick to launch from five lengths in arrears with 200 metres to run. With blistering speed, the Scissor Kick gelding mowed down “the world’s best sprinter” to win by half a length over the Al Maher gelding Private Eye who edged out the Maurice gelding Mazu, who in turn consigned Nature Strip to fourth, less than a length from the winner.

“It’s phenomenal that he could go from a Sale (in south eastern Victoria) maiden in February to winning The Everest. He does things normal horses can’t do,” said his 27 year-old trainer Clayton Douglas.

“I had a lot of confidence in this horse. He’s a superstar. He probably had his critics but I had a lot of faith in him. He’s such a professional and you can see today, with the 53kg when ridden like that, he’s electric. It’s a bit of a whirlwind, but he wasn’t in the race to make the numbers up and I had a lot of faith in him. Watch out, the new kid is on the block.”

Owned by Jonathan Munz, Giga Kick was invited into The Everest by James Harron Bloodstock, who bought one of the 12 slots in the race and then negotiated with connections on a prize money split.

Winning rider Craig Williams was also taking a gamble, bypassing the Caulfield Cup card to ride at Randwick. “This is a really big thrill,” he said. “In the inaugural running of it five years ago I finished second on Vega Magic and I thought we had unfinished business. This is another great story and every time you see these horses line up it’s a privilege for a rider to have a ride in this race.”

Giga Kick will probably head to Flemington, most likely on Victoria Derby Day. “If he travels well and we’re happy with him we’d probably go to the (Group 1) Coolmore (Stud Stakes, October 29th) if not the other race (Group 1 VRC Sprint, November 5th. We’ll sort that out when we get home,” added Douglas.