Photo Credit: Bradley Photography
Newcastle’s gun apprentice Dylan Gibbons has followed up a great first season in which he rode 86 winners with an even more impressive first up half of the current season.
The Chisholm 20 year old steered home a winning double at the Newcastle Jockey Clubs race meeting on Saturday and he fronts up for Monday’s Beaumont track meeting which rounds off the first six months of the 2021/22 season. Gibbons has ridden 56 winners this season which places him in the top fifteen in the Australian Premiership and seventh in the NSW Premiership.
On Saturday at Newcastle, he enjoyed an easy 4 ½ lengths victory on the Kris Lees trained mare Galaxy Belle in the TAB Venue Mode Benchmark 68 Handicap (1600m), and in the final event the Sharp Office Benchmark 68 Handicap (1200m) Gibbons produced the ride of the day to land the promising Sinba the narrowest of winners.
Galaxy Belle is raced by an Australian Bloodstock Syndication and before heading to the spelling paddock in the spring she won three races on the trot in Queensland. The mare finished down the track in an unsuitable 1400m event at Warwick Farm first up three weeks ago. On Saturday in the small field, Gibbons allowed Galaxy Belle to settle at the tail of the field and she came with a booming finish down the straight.
Leading trainer Gerald Ryan who trains in partnership with Sterling Alexiou has always had a huge opinion of 3yo Sinba. The gelding bolted in on debut at Newcastle in May before being placed as an odds-on favourite at Gosford. After a creditable fourth placing at Rosehill in June, Ryan sent him to the paddock. First up on Saturday the gelding was an amazing drifter in betting around the country from $2.40 to $4.40. Sinba has no early speed and Gibbons was instructed to be patient and allow the strong finishing galloper to find his feet and unleash in the straight.
Last at the 400m the potential Group winner needed every centimetre of the long Newcastle straight to win by a ½ Head. Held up for room at the top of the straight Gibbons had to manoeuvre the youngster into the clear and he sprouted wings. A smiling Ryan was full of praise for horse and jockey after the race. “He is a nice horse this bloke and that was a super performance. After he won here in early May I was confident he could go to the Brisbane Carnival for the J.J Atkins, however we decided to spell him. Sinba will benefit plenty from todays’ run and will have his next start on the Kensington track in three weeks.
One of the senior jockeys was to ride the horse today but he took another ride. I was so happy to be able to book Dylan as he is such a good young rider and his 2 kilogram claim is gold” Ryan said.
Newcastle trainer Jason Deamer was successful in the NZ Bloodstock Benchmark 64 Handicap (1850m) and former Novocastrian Blake Spriggs rode two winners.