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By Ray Hickson

Jockey Dylan Gibbons is quietly confident emerging sprinter Brave One can make the leap to stakes grade at Randwick on Saturday and he’s hoping top weight Coal Crusher can help him do it.

Jockey Dylan Gibbons (Pic: Bradley Photos).

In an interesting parallel, the duo both won on The Hunter program over 1300m last month – Coal Crusher taking the feature and Brave One the Benchmark 88 that closed the card.

While Coal Crusher ran faster overall time and final 600m, Gibbons said his mount’s effort shouldn’t be underestimated as they clash in the Listed $200,000 Coolmore Spelling @ Mount White Razor Sharp (1200m).

“I went a lot quicker than I would have liked so he had to show how much ability and how tough he was,’’ Gibbons said.

“The way it panned out he was never going to be quick late and was probably entitled to be sniped late.

“It’s obviously a step up but I like the way he’s won his previous races, he’s been well placed but he feels to me he just does what he needs to do.

“He keeps raising the bar once they put a new challenge in front of him.”

Brave One, $6 with TAB on Friday, carries 8kg less than Coal Crusher in the Razor Sharp and jumps from near the outside in the 11 horse field.

Gibbons, who has three wins from four rides on Brave One indicated he won’t be attempting to cross the top weight but is banking on that horse’s speed to allow him to land in an ideal spot.

“I think at the Randwick 1200m we just keep it simple,’’ he said.

“He jumped well the other day and I gave him a bit of a squeeze and had him in a bit of a speed duel so I don’t want to fire him up again.

“The 1200m is a great start to cop drawing wide, whether I’m three deep or they string out and I’m one off so be it. It doesn’t matter too much.

“He gets some nice weight relief which is good, I like him at 1200m because he was a bit keen the other day.

“It’ll be interesting to see how he measures up against some handier horses.”

It’s been 18 months since Gibbons last partnered Tavi Time and he’ll be out to enhance his record of three wins from seven rides in the Group 2 $2 million The Ingham (1600m).

Tavi Time has been around midfield in both the Big Dance and The Gong at his past two starts, and he met with good support in the latter, and Gibbons said he’s going well enough to be competitive.

That’s if the Kris Lees-trained gelding is in the right mood.

“He’s a hard one to dissect, I know there’s two of him,’’ he said.

“You’ve got to ride him to see where he’s at. Some days he can sit back and be explosive and some days he looks like he needs two miles.

Brave One wins at Newcastle on November 15

“I thought it was a good effort (in The Gong), the fact he kept boxing on says to me he’s still going well. A big field with 53kg on his back over a mile at Randwick is a good set up for him.”

Dylan Gibbons on Regal Hustle (race 5): “I gave her a tickover trial on Monday, she had a nice 4-2-1 in the trial and zipped up well. They broke 33 and she was taking marginal ground off the leader so it says to me she’s run nice time and I thought she trialled very well.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s meeting at Randwick