Rock N Roll Doo starting his Victoria Cup defence

Michael Stanley prefers not to look in the rear vision mirror when Rock N Roll Doo (Rock N Roll Heaven) launches his Victoria Cup harness racing defence in the Westburn Grant Free For All at Melton on Saturday night (Aug 19).

The race is a mouth-watering preview to the Cup in what leading race caller Dan Mielicki describes as “the best non-feature race I have ever seen at Melton”.

There are multiple Group 1 winners everywhere you look with Act Now, Mach Dan, Better Eclipse, Hurricane Harley, Just Hope and the Emma Stewart-trained mare Encipher, who will contest next month’s TAB Eureka.

Rock N Roll Doo hasn’t raced since finishing 11^th in the A.G Hunter Cup after down-the-track efforts in both the Bendigo and Ballarat Cups.

“As far as I’m concerned those races were just blimps on the radar and I’m not worried about them,” Stanley said.

Stanley too doesn’t regret his decision to take the son of Rock N Roll Heaven across the Tasman and contest the New Zealand Trotting Cup in November last year.

“The aim was for him to come back a more mature and all-rounded horse,” he said.

Stanley has the words of leading Kiwi horseman Cran Dalgety still ringing in his ears.

“Cran told me that the horse would be flat on returning to Australia, but he would come back bigger and stronger for his next campaign,” he said.

Rock N Roll Doo spent three months in the paddock following the Hunter Cup.

“Cran was right as the horse did super during his spell and he has furnished into a real racehorse, and now I hope he portrays it on the racetrack,” he said.

Rock N Roll Doo has been in work for the past four months and has had three trials in preparation for his return.

“He had two soft trials prior to a slightly more serious trial at Melton where I dropped him out and let him run home,” he said.

“This preparation will be a measured one where he will start where I want him to.”

Stanley said he and owner Brendan James have deliberately not over-raced the five-year-old.

“We have not taken him all over the place for the big races, we have planned what feature races he contests and stuck to it,” he said.

Stanley said Rock N Roll Doo will follow the same pathway into this year’s Victoria Cup as last year, with Saturday night’s outing followed by appearances in the Caduceus Club Classic and the Kilmore Cup.

For complete race entries, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harness Racing Victoria