Gulf Group 1 next for Rocket Man

Rocket Man has pulled-up in excellent order following his narrow defeat in the G1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin and will now be set for a Group 1 in the Gulf.

Rocket Man (5g Viscount – Macrosa by McGinty) will return to Singapore on Friday and spend two weeks in quarantine before gearing up for his next assignment the G1 Golden Shaheen at Meydan in March.  “He looked very fresh when I saw him on Monday morning,” trainer Pat Shaw said.  “I had him x-rayed and they have come back all fine, too.”

Next year’s Golden Shaheen will give the Australian bred sprinter a chance to make amends for his unlucky half-length loss to Kinsale King earlier this year.  Jockey Robbie Fradd was criticised for riding the Singapore champion too far off the speed.

Rocket Man was bred by Tyreel Stud in NSW and is by former Woodlands stallion Viscount who is now based in Western Australia at Neville Duncan’s Oakland Park Stud.  His first Sunspeed bred yearlings will be offered at the 2011 Perth Magic Millions in February.  

Oakland Park has four Viscount yearlings catalogued starting with Lot 110, a filly from G3 WA Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Paris Petard (Mujahid). 

Another of his well-related yearlings is the filly from Siesta Park (Lot 179).  The dam is a Melbourne winning half-sister to Duncan’s G1 Railway Stakes winner Covertly.

Rocket Man is from a very successful family developed by WA breeders John and Joan Blackburn.  It began in the 1980s when top-class mare Rosamoss (Moss Trooper) carried their distinctive white, black and green colours to victories in the WA Anniversary Cup, Towton Cup, Kalgoorlie Cup and Eurythmic Cup.

Her younger half-sister Dusky Rosa (Indian Conquest) won five races in Perth and at stud foaled G1 AJC Australian Derby winner Ebony Grosve (Grosvenor) and Randwick stakes winner Macrosa (McGinty).

Beside Rocket Man, Macrosa is also the dam of South African based galloper Our Giant (Giant’s Causeway) who has won at the elite level in the Mercury Sprint at Clairwood and the Horse Chestnut Stakes at Turffontein.