Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Seventy-four-year-old Kevin Nolan is enjoying his involvement in harness racing as a hobby trainer, and he was all smiles when his only horse Maddy Rocks stormed home as a rank outsider to snatch a last-stride victory in the $27,000 Specialised Equipment Funding Solutions Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Maddy Rocks, a six-year-old mare, paid $41.30 for a win on the tote and was a $71 outsider on the fixed market despite her sound form in finishing six thirds, one fourth and a seventh placing from her previous eight starts.
Friday night’s win gave outstanding young driver Emily Suvaljko a surprise success after she was engaged to drive Maddy Rocks when her uncle and the mare’s regular driver Callan Suvaljko opted to handle the polemarker Free Wheeling.
Remarkably, Emily Suvaljko’s only previous drive behind Maddy Rocks was when the mare was a $20 chance and scored her previous win, storming home from a seemingly impossible position to get up and beat the fast-finishing Shehadi at Gloucester Park on February 21 last year.
That was a chance drive for Suvaljko, who replaced Aldo Cortopassi, who was committed to handle his own nomination Sister Act, a $2.75 chance who broke early and finished last.
The win on Friday night ended a losing sequence of 27 for Maddy Rocks, who was given to Nolan as a gift as an unraced three-year-old three years ago.
“She was given to me when my son Travis died,” said Nolan. “The owners, who had paid $6000 for her as a yearling, thought she didn’t have the speed necessary to be successful.
“Maddy Rocks hadn’t raced, and it took a long time to get her going. It was her gait, and her manners were shocking. She would hang and pull, and Peter Tilbrook, Trevor Warwick and Aldo Cortopassi helped me to sort her out and get her going.”
Maddy Rocks has proved a handy performer for Nolan, with her 47 starts producing four wins, 14 placings and $51,654 in prizemoney.
Nolan proudly declared after Friday night’s win that only three drivers had handled Maddy Rocks in her races, Cortopassi and Callan and Emily Suvaljko.
Maddy Rocks is by American sire Pet Rock and is the ninth foal out of the Jet Laag mare Luvya Maddy Lombo, who failed to win in her 16-start career which included nine placings and stakes of $8444. Luvya Maddy Lombo’s half-brother Suave Stuey Lombo was a star pacer who was retired after having had 110 starts for 33 wins, 23 placings and $587,032.
Nolan is best known as the breeder, owner and trainer of Rudlan, who earned $86,360 from 11 wins and ten placings in the 1990s.
He said that Maddy Rocks had always possessed good point-to-point speed and that she would perform well when racing in better-class events.
“That’s why she started in this company, to see how she would handle high speed,” he explained. “And it looks like it has worked.”
Maddy Rocks began from the No. 3 barrier, and she raced in sixth position, four back on the pegs before she finished fast to snatch a head victory from $14 chance Wall Street Girl, who had taken the lead in the final stages.