Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Five-year-old WA-bred gelding Rockandrollartist is the tenth foal out of Artists Impression, and he is bred to follow in the footsteps of his half-brothers Heez On Fire and Papinik and become a prolific city winner.
Rockandrollartist, trained by Aiden De Campo, was the $1.90 favourite when Trent Wheeler drove him to a smart all-the-way win in the $19,000 Pegasus and Milne Feeds Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night. It was an excellent performance at his third appearance at Gloucester Park.
Heez On Fire earned $287,607 from 20 wins and eight placings from 52 starts, and Papinik has had 25 starts for 14 wins, seven placings and $145,511.
Wheeler used Rockandrollartist’s sparkling gate speed to advantage from the No. 5 barrier to charge straight to the front. After modest opening quarters of 30.9sec. and 31sec. Rockandrollartist sped over the final 400m sections in 28.8sec. and 27.6sec. to win by just over a half-length from $31 chance Rockmyster, who was tenth at the bell before finishing powerfully.
“It makes it a lot easier when you have good gate speed and can put yourself into a nice forward position,” said Wheeler.
“Rocknrollartist was never in any real danger tonight. We went a little bit slow and let a couple of other horses get into the race cheaply. But he hit the line well and got the job done. I expect him to be better after a spell following this campaign.”