A flying start from the No. 4 barrier enabled Rockandrollartist to burst to the front after 200m and paved the way for his convincing win in the $30,000 Ascot Group WA Im Themightyquinn Pace over 2130m at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Rockandrollartist, a WA-bred seven-year-old trained and driven by Aiden de Campo, was a $12.60 chance who ended a losing sequence of ten and just two placings from his nine previous starts when he dictated the terms of the event and cruised to a 7m win over Petes Honour ($14), with the $4.60 equal favourites Minos and Justcallmemiki finishing in the next two placings.
“Lighting him up in Free For All grade is a little bit harder than lighting him up back in a (lower) grade,” said de Campo. “He comes out as he always has but the rest come out faster.
“After Longreach Bay ($81) crossed to the front and then looked like he was going to take a trail ensured we took the lead and after a first quarter of 31.2sec. I thought he wasn’t going to get beaten.
“Going into the back straight the last time, horses on our back and in the breeze were struggling, so when we ran that quick quarter (27.6sec.) down the back it put the pressure on the horses back in the field to make up ground. And Rockandrollartist ran through the line strongly.”
Rockandrollartist has been a wonderful performer for his breeder and owner Adrian Shanks, and he now has raced 99 times for 17 wins, 28 placings for $234,793 in prizemoney.
Justcallmemiki, making his first appearance for 14 weeks, should pay to follow. He began from the outside (No. 9) on the front line and was ninth at the bell before surging home strongly out wide on the track to finish an eye-catching fourth. The final quarters, off the front, were covered in 27.6sec. and 28.2sec.
