Michael Howard
Victorian harness racing has a new superstar as Rock N Roll Doo dominated a talent-laden Victoria Cup in front of a huge crowd at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday.
Trainer-driver Michael Stanley bullied the best horses in Australasia to cap an incredible month for his maturing four-year-old, who added the $300,000 Group 1 to his preceding Kilmore Cup and Group 1 VHRC Caduceus Classic demolition jobs.
“I think he is (special), we’ve been telling everyone who wants to hear,” Stanley said.
“He’s won his last two races against this high quality with his ear plugs in and running through the line.
“We felt we had the most versatile and strongest horse in the race. He travelled so strong throughout the race tonight. He’s a switched-on racehorse.”
Off only a modest early pace Rock N Roll Doo was in a class of his own in the run home, doing all the work before following a 27.6-sec third quarter with a 26.8-sec run to the line for a three-metre win from Honolua Bay
It was a result that thrilled owners Anne and Brendan James, who had been rewarded for their patience as their four-year-old has matured.
“Unexplainable. I never ever thought I’d have one good enough to win it and to win it in that style,” Brendan James said. “To do it tough, to come around and sit outside the best Group 1 horses in the land and to be able to finish off like that … he’s a beautiful animal.
“He’s just a colossus of a horse, let’s hope he can hang together, we will enjoy tonight that’s for sure.”
And they’ll almost certainly enjoy the months to come, with Rock N Roll Doo’s dominant performance all but cementing plans to take on the New Zealand Cup on November 8.
“That’s the dream isn’t it,” Stanley said. “You don’t get horses like this very often. We are up for a challenge and he’s earned his right to have a crack. I’m sure he will go there and do us proud.”
“He’s going,” James said. “It was always our plans to go unless he disappointed us, he clearly hasn’t done that. We think it’s an opportunity of a lifetime to go.”
But for tonight they can bask in the limelight of being the Victoria Cup champion.
“We all work extremely hard,” Stanley said. “It’s a really special race.”
Meanwhile, Encipher separated from the pack and reinforced the strength of Emma Stewart’s stable to claim the Victoria Oaks.
Stewart got the first two home and controlled proceedings throughout, with Petillante, Star Celebrity and Beach Life all prominent in the run.
But it was Encipher who proved herself the star of her class, grinding home in 27.6sec and 27.5sec final quarters to secure a three-metre win in the $150,000 classic.
It was a pleasing result for Stewart, for South Australian owner-breeder Tyson Linke and for driver Kate Gath, who flew the flag for her former state.
“She’s been such a good horse to me and the owners are here from Adelaide, so it’s a really good night,” Gath said. “I haven’t won an Oaks before, so to win one is good to tick off the bucket list.”
