Ready to Rock ('n' Pop)

The Informant takes a closer look at the beautiful pedigree of the Te Akau trained, now Waikato Stud based stallion Rock 'n' Pop:

As well as the Cox Plate winner Ocean Park, Waikato Stud has another high class debut making sire joining their super strong line up, which includes the leading sire trio of O'Reilly, Pins and Savabeel.  

This is the classic winning ROCK 'N' POP, who headed the 2011-2012 Three-Year-Old Free Handicap half a kilogram above the leading filly Silent Achiever.

One of two classic winners by Fastnet Rock in New Zealand that season, Rock 'n' Pop was unraced at two years, although he had beaten Silent Achiever no less in a Cambridge trial. Sent south for his second season base, he scored in two more trials before debuting successfully over 1200 metres at Riccarton. He met his paternal half-sister Planet Rock (who was to win the New Zealand 1000 Guineas) next up in the Canterbury Guineas Trial but failed to defeat her in very fast time for the 1400 metres. He was second again in a Listed stakes next up over the same trip to another handy sort in Shuka.

A class field lined up for the Gr. 1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas headed by the previous season's champion juvenile, the filly Anabandana, who was fully expected to prevail. In the event she had no answer to the strong finishing rails run by Rock 'n' Pop who emerged a clear and deserving winner.  

Spelled in the north again after Riccarton, he returned to form on his second start back with a win in the Listed ARC Karaka 3YO Mile and then took on older horses for the first time in the Gr. 1 Waikato International Stakes over 2000 metres, where he ran a creditable third to Shez Sinsational, setting him up for a tilt at a second classic. He just might have been a tad unlucky not to have won the Gr. 1 New Zealand Derby too, although going down by two and a half lengths to Silent Achiever, as he received a rocky run on several occasions in the race, especially when let down to deliver his challenge. 

Rock 'n' Pop may or may not have beaten the winner, but he certainly would have given her a fright but for the run he received. His racing career was all downhill thereafter with a disappointing run in the Rosehill Guineas and well beaten in a couple of stakes sprints the following season. It is my surmise that as an older horse he may instead have been looking for middle-distances.

His sire, the Danehill horse Fastnet Rock, has been a sensation at stud. The champion Australasian three-year-old of 2004-05 when he won the VRC Lightning Stakes and MRC Oakleigh Plate at elite level, he became champion Australian sire and leading Australian sire on worldwide earnings last season, and is currently second on the list this season. 

He has already amassed a phenomenal 45 stakes winners from his first five crops with a winning distance index of 1,344 metres - that of a speedy miler. His 13 Group One winners include four with epochal Sir Tristram featuring close up, suggesting a strong affinity between the two, and surely inviting further reinforcement when choosing mates for Rock 'n' Pop, who is of course, out of Sir Tristram's best daughter.  

Fastnet Rock's main stars to date are Mosheen (VRC Oaks, Australian Guineas, ATC Royal Randwick Guineas, Vinery Stud S.), Sea Siren (BTC Cup, Doomben 10,000 S., MVRC Manikato S.), Atlantic Jewel (ATC All-Aged S., MRC 1000 Guineas), Foxwedge, Super Cool, Wanted, Nechita, Irish Lights and Your Song. Mosheen, Atlantic Jewel, Planet Rock and Rock 'n' Pop are all descendants of Sir Tristram. It is still early days to assess Fastnet Rock as a sire of sires, but the progeny of his son Wanted have been well accepted in the marketplace, which augurs well for the future.

Rock 'n' Pop's female line is that of the No. 5 family established in New Zealand almost a century ago by the Newman family, then of Nelson and still today being bred from at the top level by family members. The New Zealand-bred Hollywood Gold Cup winner Cadiz is one of many top horses way back that trace to Chanoinesse, a sister to seven times champion British sire Hermit and ancestress of Derby winners Minoru and Grand Parade.

His dam is Popsy, the Gr. 1 New Zealand Derby and ARC Championship Stakes victress who is a daughter of Sir Tristram and one of the fillies from that vintage generation foaled in 1990. She has bred eight winners, of which two are stakes winners including the Danehill mare Lilakyn. The next dam is the stout In The Purple mare Beks, stakes winner of 10 races up to 2500 metres and half-sister to the classy grey Steely Dan (New Zealand 2000 Guineas, WRC DB 1600 H., VATC J.J. Liston S.) and Prince Standaan (Moonee Valley Gold Cup, VATC Schweppes Cup; 2^nd South Australian Derby), Group Two-placed Street Hawk, the smart Ayla (dam of SW Battle Hawk) and unraced Jubilee Princess (granddam of champion two-year-old filly Mi Jubilee).  

Their dam Miss Jubilee is half-sister to Rationale(ARC  Great Northern Guineas), from whom descend a squadron of top horses including such as Wise Lass, South African stars Gold Onyx and Wise Son, Amalfi (Victoria Derby), Vigor, Antonio Lombardo, Egoli Lass, Options, Vincent Mangano and Joey Massino.

 Rock 'n' Pop sports a beautifully constructed pedigree, being bred on a Northern Dancer/Sir Ivor cross which is repeated in his sire Fastnet Rock's dam Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy). Fastnet Rock also carries three balanced lines of the great American sire Menow, which gels sensationally with Rock ‘n' Pop's two Sir Ivor lines as the latter's granddam Athenia is a three-quarter-sister to Menow.

Waikato's new sire is sex-balanced inbred to Sir Tristram (5 x 2) and is line-bred in balance to Nearco (6 lines), Mahmoud (3), Hyperion (7), Pharos (7), Gainsborough (10) and Selene (11). His sire Fastnet Rock is likewise to Natalma, Nearco, Hyperion and Menow, whilst Popsy does the same with Hyperion's parents Gainsborough and Selene. Additional sex balancing might be obtained through mates possessing male lines of Round Table (like Pompeii Court) and Biscay, female ones from the Northern Dancer or Sir Ivor sire lines or daughters of Right Royal, Owen Tudor, Sovereign Path, Grey Sovereign, Royal Charger, Nijinsky and Luthier.

In seeking mates the obvious nick of Northern Dancer with Mr. Prospector and his sire-line could be easily cultivated, and a further repetition of the Northern Dancer/Sir Tristram cross through mares by such as Danske, Duelled, Le Bec Fin, Savabeel and his sire Zabeel, St. Reims, Viking Ruler and Darci Brahma should be highly desirable. Colombia, Don Eduardo and Zed are others on the same theme. 

In looking at young broodmare sires whose daughters appeal as prospective mates, I especially liked Thorn Park and his sire Spinning World, also Elusive City, D'Cash, Bachelor Duke and Waikato Stud's own Fast 'n' Famous. Others that I liked were Bahhare, Captain Rio, City On A Hill, Red Clubs, His Royal Highness, No Excuse Needed, One Cool Cat, Personal Escort, Postponed, Flying Spur, Shinko King, Van Nistelrooy, Volksraad and other Green Desert descendants.

I am bullish about this young stallion's chances, particularly as there is every chance he will get some of the mares that will suit him. He strikes me as the type that will throw winners across the full spectrum of distances.

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