3 minute read
Rock My Way is likely to return to Cheltenham on Festival Trials Day following his promising debut at Prestbury Park on New Year’s Day.
Recruited by owner/trainer Syd Hosie for £90,000 in November after winning a Castletown-Geoghegan point-to-point the previous month, the five-year-old produced an eye-catching display on his Rules bow.
Sent off a 66-1 outsider for the Ballymore Maiden Hurdle over an extended two and a half miles, the son of Getaway made a mockery of those long odds to press Nigel Twiston-Davies' 5-4 favourite Weveallbeencaught all the way to the line.
With the winner well-regarded by connections and the front two pulling over 20 lengths clear of the rest of the field, Hosie was delighted to see his confidence in Rock My Way justified.
The Dorset-based handler is now hoping his charge can book his place in the Albert Bartlett at the Cheltenham Festival by coming through his next assignment in the Grade Two Ballymore Novices' Hurdle on January 28 with flying colours.
"We were quite hopeful he would run a nice race, that's why he went there," said Hosie. "Sometimes when picking a race like that you think you could be in the wrong place, but he proved we weren't, so that was good.
"When you get a nice one, you just have to look after them and we're just making a plan for him. Tom (Scudamore) liked him so that is good news.
"There is the Ballymore race at the end of the month at Cheltenham. It is never normally that strong a race as people have already had their run or don't want to run. We may as well stick to that sort of company and if he can be competitive there, we can go up in trip for the Albert Bartlett."
Hosie also feels there should be more to come from a horse he believes has plenty of star quality.
He added: "He's a big lad and scopey as well. He will definitely be the best looking horse we've had here and when he turned up, you could see he was just a bit of a different class.
"He just gallops and gallops at home and I did think it might almost be a bit sharp for him on debut. He just bumped into a good one and I guess you could think we will go where they go because we think ours is the same sort of quality as Nigel's.
"We didn't do a lot with him before the race to be honest. We bought him at Cheltenham in November, brought him back home and didn't do an awful lot with him. I just thought he looks fresh, he was really well at home, so let's run him. Now he's gone and done that, we know we have something to work with. Hopefully look out on January 28."
The Sandhills Farm handler also provided an update Lieutenant Rocco ahead of his outing at Taunton on Monday.
The eight-year-old won twice as a novice hurdler when trained by Colin Tizzard in his formative years, while he added a novice chase victory under the stewardship of Nick Mitchell in 2021.
The Shirocco gelding will now attempt to score for the first time with Hosie as trainer in the Stables Business Park Handicap Hurdle.
"He's coming along nicely and is going to have a blast out at Taunton on Monday just to get his fitness back," said the Sherborne trainer.
"He's had his problems but we've got him back and now he's getting older, it just takes longer to get him fit. He's a big, big horse – we feed him as much as he wants but then we have to train it off!
"It would be nice to get a win into him and I've never trained him to win myself.
"He probably had hard races as a novice chaser. If you look at his form, he's finished ahead of Chantry House and just behind Fusil Raffles at Cheltenham and he was not far behind Protektorat in the Dipper when the race was held at Wincanton. The ability is in there, it is just eking it all out.
"We're looking forward to running him and I would love to get him back to Cheltenham and try to get him back there for the Ultima. But he needs to probably go up a few pounds now."
