Seasoned sprinter Packing Rockstar has been a long-time performer for trainer Lauren Brennan, and the eight-year-old continued to show his class when scoring in the Flying Mullet Sports Bar 1400 at Tauranga on Saturday.
Jumping from the ace draw, Packing Rockstar missed the start by a length allowing race-favourite Mercurial to cross to the lead which was eventually taken up by Clever Ruds, with apprentice Triston Moodley settling the gelding three-back on the fence.
The field steadied leading into the home turn landing the solid gelding in tight quarters, but a patient Moodley found clear air off the rail and Packing Rockstar’s bounding stride picked up Clever Ruds around the 50m, and held off Mercurial to score by a head.
A constant presence in group sprints in recent seasons, the gelding has now collected seven wins including stakes victories in the Gr.3 J Swap Sprint (1400m) and Gr.2 Japan Trophy (1600m), with further placings including runner-up to a dominant Babylon Berlin in the Gr.2 Haunui Farm Kings Plate (1200m) in March.
Cambridge-based Brennan had formed a back-up plan for the son of Fastnet Rock following a less-than-desirable result first-up this campaign in the Gr.3 Sweynesse Stakes (1200m), and was delighted to see the move pay-off, albeit from a TAB in Melbourne as she had crossed the Tasman to attend Derby Day.
“His first start of the season was in the Sweynesse and it didn’t go to plan, they went pretty quick in that race and he’s not really a 1.09 sprinter,” she said.
“I saw this race at Tauranga and thought we could claim off him, he does like Tauranga and 1400m is his pet distance so we just thought we’ve got nothing to lose, he’s an eight-year-old and probably in his last prep so we rolled the dice and it paid off.
“He’s pretty special to us, of course we have the stable favourites and he’s definitely one of them, he gets spoilt rotten.”
Brennan commended the ride of four-kilogram claiming apprentice Moodley, who had to divert from the original race-plan when the gelding missed the kick.
“Triston gave him a really good ride, especially when the plan was to go forward from barrier one but he missed the kick standing in the gates for a while so he obviously had to go to Plan B and C.
“He found a nice spot one-off the rail, got the gap and found the line nicely so we’re very happy.”
Packing Rockstar has now earnt over $343,000 in stakes for his connections of which include Brennan, her husband Mickey and Hong Kong-based Patrick Lee under the Monacurragh Lodge banner, alongside bloodstock agent Gary Carvell.
The victory came in a successful week for Brennan, where she was pleasantly surprised to see lightly-raced five-year-old Mclaren claim his second career victory on Friday.
In the steady rain at Te Aroha, jockey Tegan Newman eased the Sweynesse gelding to the tail of the twelve-horse field headed by Madiran through the running of the Mainfreight Rating 65 1400, and still spotted the leaders a decent margin turning for home.
Coming from near last and wide, the five-year-old took home the spoils in a blanket finish to drive over the top of race-favourite Anela and Three Ninety in the final metres to score by a neck in just his seventh start.
“That was a very nice surprise, we weren’t expecting him to win,” Brennan said.
“He doesn’t show a lot at home in trackwork, I told his owners that he’s just not hitting out in his gallops, but he has been a work in progress for a couple of years and we’ve taken baby steps with him.
“He looked like he really knuckled down and hit the line strongly yesterday, it looks like he’d go a little bit further as well.”