Stop The Rock lands Caulfield upset

For the second year in a row, winter racing has brought the best out of talented New Zealand-bred gelding Stop The Rock (NZ) (El Roca), who scored an 80-to-one shock win in Saturday’s A$130,000 Sportsbet Feed Handicap (1700m) at Caulfield.

At around this time last year, the El Roca gelding stamped himself as a promising stayer with three wins in a row. His victories came over 1600m at Swan Hill on June 8, over 2000m at Flemington on June 21 and over 2000m at Caulfield on July 12.

Stop The Rock had been unplaced in four starts since then, the most recent of them a resuming run for 11^th over 1600m at Swan Hill on June 5. But on Saturday he was right back in peak form.

Ridden by apprentice jockey Dakotah Keane, Stop The Rock jumped well from a wide gate and went forward to take up a handy position just behind the speed.

Keane presented her mount at the home turn, and Stop The Rock loomed on the outside of the leaders. The four-year-old kept lifting all the way down the home straight to hold out challengers on both sides, snatching victory by a nose.

Neil Greaves, stable representative for trainer Patrick Payne, admitted that he thought the team’s best chance in the race might have been the fifth-placed The Devil In Her (Sebring).

“Stop The Rock ran quite well at Swan Hill first-up, but I did think the other horse might have the edge today,” Greaves said. “The expectation was that he (Stop The Rock) was still on the way up and would take further improvement from this. But no one knocks back a Saturday win.

“Dakotah rode this horse terrific. She went forward, and he’s such a strong bugger and just seemed to keep finding down the straight.

“The owners will be very excited. I think Brendan Danaher is over in Europe, but a few of the other owners are here. They put a lot of money into the game and this is a great result for them.

“This horse should just keep progressing.”

Stop The Rock was bred by Westbury Stud owner Gerry Harvey and is a son of Westbury stallion El Roca. His dam is the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Shezablonde and stems from the family of Nothin’ Leica Dane.

Stop The Rock is a graduate of the hugely successful New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale, purchased for $75,000 by Patrick Payne from the draft of Westbury Stud.

Stop The Rock has now had 10 starts for five wins, earning A$293,025 in stakes.