Holt and Rock It Out “Rock On”

After beating a tornado, Rock It Out (Rockin Image-Musette Mindale) is back to defeating harness racing horses.

Rock It Out, a 5-year-old female pacer, last week won a $22,000 Fillies and Mares Open at Oak Grove Racing in a career-best 1:49.4 for owner/trainer Donna Holt. The triumph came six months after the mare was one of six horses to survive a devastating tornado that passed through western Kentucky on Dec. 10 and destroyed Holt’s house and barn.

The six horses in the barn at the time of the storm suffered varying injuries, mostly cuts and abrasions, as a result of the tornado. Rock It Out and pacing mare Tropical Tracey took the brunt of the impact and were trapped under rubble in the collapsed barn. Tropical Tracey will not return to racing but is ready to begin a new chapter as a broodmare. Rock It Out, after a couple months of care with veterinarian Dr. Kim Abernathy, returned to action.

Rock It Out, who had raced just five days prior to the tornado, came back in early May in the Fillies and Mares open at Oak Grove. She had two third-place finishes among her first four races this season but has since won consecutive starts.

“After everything she’s been through, she’s done real good,” said Holt, who resides in Benton, Ky. “I’m not going to lie, I had doubts. I thought she might come back but she might not be her old self. But she has come back with a vengeance, like ‘I’m not going to be beat. This storm is not going to beat me.’ The storm might have given her extra determination.”

Rock It Out has won 21 of 67 career races and earned $175,285. At age 3, she was a winner on the Indiana Sire Stakes circuit.

“She is a true, honest, mare,” Holt said. “When she goes out there, she will give you everything she can give you; she’s going to give it all. When she comes in, she knows she’s done her best. She is one of the best horses I’ve ever had. She is my first horse as a trainer or owner to go in (1):49.4. I sold some that went on and took marks like that, but not training or still owned by me.

“I do have her spoiled, but she is a well-mannered sweet mare. My grandkids mess with her. I can put one of my grandbabies on her and she will just trot so slow. But when it’s time to go, she’s going to go.”

On the same day that Rock It Out won in 1:49.4, Holt-trained Ashlee’s Joy, another pacing mare who was in the barn at the time of the tornado, won a conditioned race over male rivals in a career-best 1:51.4.

“She’s really turned it on too,” Holt said. “It was a big day for me.”

Holt is still putting her life back together following last year’s storm, but she is grateful for the outpouring of support shown to her and her father, Junior, who also lost his house and workshop on a bordering property.

“I’m getting along,” Holt said. “Everything is going real slow. But I was fortunate to have some real good horsemen friends and family that have gone above and beyond. I wish I could thank each and every one of them personally. Some of them I don’t even know, but they’ve helped me out a lot. I can’t express how much I appreciate what they did for me.”

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA