He is big, he is raw and he is bound for Addington.
Emerging Victorian harness racing star Rock N Roll Doo (Rock N Roll Heaven) effectively booked a trip to the New Zealand Cup with his dominant Group 2 Kilmore Cup victory last night (Sep 24).
THE NEXT BIG THING!
Rock N Roll Doo dominant in claiming the Jet Roofing Kilmore Pacing Cup for trainer-driver Michael Stanley, sliding to the front early and breaking their hearts in the third quarter.
HE'S A MACHINE!
Pryde's EasiFeed Victoria Cup (October 8) here he comes. pic.twitter.com/8uJyIXeBPT— The Trots (@TheTrotsComAu) September 23, 2022
Trainer-driver Michael Stanley was moved to declare the four-year-old the best pacer he has trained āfor a proper chunk of time.ā
That reference is to the brief stint he had training former injury-plagued Grand Circuit star Soho Tribeca.
āHeās the best Iāve trained if youāre talking about a horse from scratch. Soho Tribeca was awesome, but I only had him for a little while,ā Stanley said.
āThis guy has always had X-factor, but heās needed time. We deliberately skipped the Queensland Winter with a view to taking our time with him and letting him mature.
āHeās come back really well. Thatās two feature wins in a row now and heās still on the up.ā
Next stop is Victoriaās second-biggest race, the Group 1 Victoria Cup on October 8.
And then the focus moves to NZ.
Itās something Stanley had been planning for a while and included qualifying from a standing-start in a trial last week.
āThe stand doesnāt fuss me or him,ā he said. āI know there were only two in the trial, but heās such a relaxed fella, I canāt see the stand or the big crowd at Addington bothering him.ā
Talks with Canterbury trainer Cran Dalgety, who Stanley and his stable star will stay with, really convinced Stanley to make the trip.
āWe were worried about having to float him down from Auckland to Christchurch, but Cran assured me itās not a problem and we had to give it a shot,ā Stanley said.
āNow heās won again (at Kilmore), weāll start to pull all the plans together.
āThereās a chance heāll go over early enough to run at Ashburton, if not, definitely in time for the Cup Trial.
āIt would be good to get across and have some standing-start practice NZ conditions.ā
Rock N Roll Doo, who boasts 11 wins from just 28 starts, first showed his enormous potential when he did plenty of work and won a Chariots Of Fire qualifier in stunning style in a 1min51.2sec mile at Menangle on February 12.
He then galloped at the start of the Chariots Of Fire.
Rock N Roll Doo has only raced six times since for four wins and two seconds.