Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Noted sit-sprinter Rockaball returned to top form when he sustained a sparkling burst which carried him from last to a thrilling last-stride victory in the 2536m Allwood Stud Supporting WA Breeding For Forty Years Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
A $14 chance from out wide at barrier No. 8, Rockaball relaxed at the rear while Stamford ($3.20) set a brisk pace. Micheal Ferguson sent Rockaball forward, three wide, with 870m to travel, and this flushed out the $1.85 favourite Boom Time from the one-out, two-back position, thus giving Rockaball the advantage of following that pacer in the final lap.
Boom Time and Rockaball finished strongly in the home straight and in a dramatic three-way photo finish Rockaball gained the verdict, beating Boom Time by a half-neck, with Stamford a head away in third place after the final 800m was covered in 56.8sec.
Oakford trainer Caris Hamilton-Smith, who races Rockaball in partnership with her father Geordie and uncle Lindsay Hamilton-Smith, said that she wasn’t confident after Rockaball had drawn barrier eight.
“But Micheal knows him really well and does a fantastic job with him, a horse who is not the easiest to handle,” she said.
The solid pace set by Stamford was just what Rockaball needed, whereas he was not suited by the slow early speed and the fast last lap when he finished eleventh behind Plutonium in the Group 2 Binshaw Classic a fortnight earlier.
Rockaball’s effort was similar to his performance when he won the Group 3 Warwick Pace last September when he was the $112.60 outsider who surged home from the rear.
Rockaball won at two of his 12 New Zealand starts before he was sold, costing $40,000 landed when he arrived in WA in September 2018. He was off the scene for 23 months after complications set in after he had trodden on a fencing nail in a paddock. He is now fully fit, and his 32 WA starts have produced ten wins, five placings and $92,267 in stakes.