"I worked with a guy 45 years ago and he said 'speed will win you the first few races, sonny, but class will win the rest'."
The countdown to the 2016 Pepsi North America Cup continues, with Trot Magazine profiling the horses predicted to be the top contenders for Canadian harness racing's richest prize.
At 5-1, Boston Red Rocks comes in at #2 in Trot's 2016 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.
Honoured with the Dan Patch Award as the two-year-old colt pacer of the year in the U.S., the son of Rocknroll Hanover never finished out of the money in nine seasonal starts. His 4-4-1 summary was accompanied by a mark of 1:50.3 and a bankroll of $669,918, making him the richest male freshman of 2015. A $50,000 yearling purchase, Boston Red Rocks counted the Breeders Crown and the Governors Cup among his major victories for owners Peter Blood and Rick Berks.
Trot Insider caught up with both Blood (PB) -- who developed the horse, and also receives credit for the above quote -- and trainer Steve Elliott (SE) for an update.
Where did he winter?
PB: "Right here with me at Pompano."
When did you bring him back in to start training?
PB: "Middle of December."
Where are you at with him right now? (as of April 6)
PB: "2:01."
Have you noticed any changes from last year to this year?
PB: "Mentally, the horse was wise beyond his years last year. Nothing's changed in that regard. Physically, he's grown a lot taller. He looks like a bigger, better specimen than he looked last year...taller, not much thicker, I kind of like that, actually. Makes him look more like a thoroughbred."
Did you feel the horse needed to add much size from two to three?
SE: "Not a lot, but they need to fill out and get some meat on their bones because you know the three-year-old year is a tough year and it's going to take a lot out of them."
PB: "Traditionally the Rocknrolls get better with age. So I anticipate that he won't be any different. If he does that, we're all going to be pretty happy."
When will he qualify?
PB: "He'll go up North with Steve in a few weeks. He's ready, in fact I just came off the track with him. He's probably about two weeks away from qualifying but since he'll be shipping in two weeks...I'd expect he'd qualify around the first of May."
What's his early schedule looking like leading up to the Pepsi North America Cup?
PB: "His first race is (I think) May 21st in the [New Jersey] Sire Stakes. He's got a pretty tight schedule; he's got 10 races in a row, and the North America Cup is one. There's not going to be any room in his schedule to come up there before."
What is he staked to past the North America Cup?
PB: "After those 10 weeks [following the NA Cup, Hempt, Meadowlands Pace], he has a bunch of breaks in between [stakes]. So we're figuring as a three-year-old, as long as he comes back good then he probably dance all the dances.
"I didn't make him eligible for the Little Brown Jug because I don't like two heats. There are a few we didn't pay him into...we'll see how he handles it. If he doesn't handle it real well, there are some spots we can just skip."
At what point last year did this horse show you North America Cup-level talent?
PB: "I knew that last year. He had trained down with a group of horses down here that I liked and he was by far the best in the group."
What makes this horse such a great competitor?
SE: "He's got speed, but he's got great manners. He raced all year with a colt bit, he drives two fingers, he's very versatile...and he takes great care of himself. When he goes into his stall, he'll lay down and sleep, get up, jog, go back to sleep, eat lunch, go back to sleep."
PB: "His head. Because he lets the driver do the thinking. You can leave with him, you can come from behind, you can come with cover...you can do anything you want with him."
He started strong and finished strong, but hit a blip in the middle of his campaign. What happened there?
PB: "Here's the deal that people didn't know. He won his first two starts, he won his qualifier in :54.2, he came back and won in :53.2, then he won in :52.2, then he got beat in the NJSS Final at The Meadowlands. He scoped like somebody dumped cottage cheese down his throat after the race. So we knew he didn't get beat, he was sick that night...we just didn't know it. And that kind of persisted for the rest of the summer."
SE: "It must have helped him, because he wasn't big and strong in stature...he was kind of a medium-sized, slim kind of horse. So he got the time to fill out and grow and come back and he was very good at the end of the year too. Had he raced all through the middle of the year, you never know."