Newcastle Beaumont, Coffs Harbour previews: Dylan Gibbons is back and hungry for success

His last ride was in the $3 million The Big Dance and while there will be many fewer people in the stands at Newcastle on Monday, jockey Dylan Gibbons is no less excited to be making his return.

Dylan Gibbons will return to race riding on Monday at Newcastle. Picture: Jason McCawley / Getty Images

Dylan Gibbons’ last ride was in the $3 million The Big Dance in front of an overflowing crowd at Royal Randwick on the first Tuesday in November.

There will be considerably fewer people in the stands at Newcastle when the now ‘former local boy’ returns to racing after his post-carnival shoulder reconstruction surgery, fitter and fresher than he has ever been.

“I have done everything to make sure when I came back that I am a hundred per cent to go straight back into it,’’ Gibbons said.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

“There’ll be no easing into it. I’ve done all the groundwork and I’ve kept my fitness up to the mark as much as I could.

“I got a Peloton bike and smashed all the physio sessions and been to trackwork pretty much every day since I’ve been back. So I am leaving no stone unturned and just ready to get firing straight away.

“My weight is better than ever, my health is better than ever.

“I’ve had all the work on my shoulder to make sure once I do get back, I don’t have to worry about it all.

“So everything is in tip-top shape and I’m just really keen to get back out there.”

Gibbons’ comeback on the Beaumont track at Newcastle on Monday marks almost a year to the day he steered the Kris Lees-trained import Kalapour to victory in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes.

“It’s a funny game,’’ Gibbons said.

“It moves fast. There’s a lot of ups and downs – 12 months ago I was celebrating one of the biggest wins of my career and you fast forward 12 months and I only rode for six to eight of it and spent the other third off injured.

“So that’s why you’ve got to enjoy it while it’s there.”

Kalapour kicks to win the G1  Tancred Stakes!@aus_turf_club@[e-mail]/mraR2LcAaj

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 30, 2024

• Waller’s big calls: Will Aeliana take on Treasurethe Moment … and what’s next for Wodeton?

Gibbons’ measured approach to success and the inevitable challenges that go with being a jockey is a trait handed down from his father, Andrew, whose 1414th winner came at Kembla on Saturday when he helped secure Imposant a berth in the upcoming Provincial Championships Final.

“The biggest thing I learned from Dad in the early days was how level-headed he was,’’ Gibbons said.

“I went to the races everywhere with him as a kid and I copped the bad days worse than him and I wasn’t even riding them.

“He taught me that on the big days, you never get too ahead of yourself so when you have a bad daw, you never dipped down.”

It is fitting that two of Gibbons’ first rides of 2025 are for Lees.

Trainer Kris Lees (right) and jockey Dylan Gibbons celebrate Kalapour’s Tancred Stakes victory at Rosehill in March 2024. Picture: Jeremy Ng / Getty Images

• Big Bets Review: Bookies cop a hiding on Golden Slipper day at Rosehill Gardens

Lees has been, and remains, a friend and mentor to Gibbons, both junior and senior.

It has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

Andrew Gibbon’s tally of winners for Lees currently stands at 470 while Dylan can on Monday set about raising his total of 127 by two should She’s Got Teeth and Naughty Nurse salute at Beaumont.

Gibbons, who at just 23 has already ridden in both The Everest and Melbourne Cup, is keen to repay Lees for helping set him on the path to multiple Group 1 success.

“He’s been amazing,’’ Gibbons said.

“He’s been so good to me for such a long time.

“When you’re having a good run he is always giving you a pat on the back and then he is the first bloke when you’re having a tough run to make sure he keeps giving you the same rides and tell you to keep your chin up.’’

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

TRAINER Noel Mayfield-Smith is desperately hoping the Bureau’s forecast rainfall total for Coffs Harbour on Monday is closer to one than 15 millimetres so his two ‘Montes’ and stablemate Cardsharp can go around and win.

The five-times Group 1-winning conditioner aims to win the last three legs of Monday’s Coffs quaddie via the Vic and Yvonne Bates-owned pairing Monte Tiana and Monte Outlander, with ‘cheap’ Ready 2 Run purchase Cardsharp bringing it home in the last.

Written Tycoon mare Monte Tiana hasn’t been seen since getting off the mark in a 1500m Super Maiden at Port Macquarie on February 16.

Monte Tiana races away for her Maiden win at @port_races for @NOELM_SMITH and Matthew Mc Guren! pic.twitter.com/JCryMcJTOV

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) February 16, 2025

• Private Harry makes case for The Everest as star continues to rise in Galaxy

“She has always shown a bit and it wasn’t a surprise that she won,’’ Mayfield-Smith said from the Magic Millions March Sale on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

“I am just keeping an eye on the weather because she is not great on wet ground.

“The disadvantage is that it has been a little bit of time since her last run but she has gone ahead really well.

“It would be great if she ran a fortnight ago, that’s not to be, but the race on Monday is at home and was too good to go past.’’

Monte Outlander, meanwhile, is a walking, breathing exception to the ‘greys in the wet’ theory.

If anything, he’s a duffer, but a very talented one at that.

“He’s a Highway horse, there is no doubt about that in my mind, but he just draws bad gates or you take him to Brisbane and the rail is out eight or ten metres,’’ Mayfield-Smith said.

“I thought with a little bit of luck last start, he would have won.

“And the jock said the same thing. He just let him go too early and he ended up four and five deep on the turn whereas the two that beat him were both inside him so they got the favours and he didn’t.’’

Mayfield-Smith’s third and final runner on the Coffs Harbour card on Monday is the lightly-raced Cardsharp who will find Monday’s assignment considerably easier than his last, namely the NRRA Country Championships Qualifier.

“He is not a soft ground horse but he does race well at Coffs and I’ve been happy with his work and if we go in on a normal track, I give him a big chance.

“I give them all a big chance (on Monday),’’ Mayfield-Smith said.