Rocket Racer distressed after win
NZPA-AAP Perth Perth galloper, Rocket Racer, pulled up distressed after winning the $300,000 Perth Cup (3200 m at Ascot on Saturday. Rocket Racer, the 2-1 favourite, disposed of a strong field to win by five lengths from Puckle Harbour (5-1), with Royal Sharif (15-1) a head back in third place. Rocket Racer covered the journey in 3:18.65, only 0.4 s outside the state and race record set by Dayana in 1973. But just after jockey John Miller dismounted, the four-year-old entire almost collapsed and had to be pushed and shoved up to the saddling stall to be hosed down. Rocket Racer was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration.
It was Miller’s second successive Perth Cup after winning on Ullyatt last year. This time, however,
Miller, aged 53, had to lose 3.5 kg in three weeks so that he could ride Rocket Racer 2kg overweight. But wasting wasn’t Miller’s only problem — he rode with a pulled muscle in his left leg. “The pain in my leg was getting worse the closer I got to the post,” said Miller, whose three week suspension ended last Tuesday. Miller sustained the injury in a fall from Concrete last month. Rocket Racer will have three 2400 m starts in Perth before running in the weight-for-age Tancred Stakes and Sydney Cup. “They said he couldn’t win,” said Perth millionaire Laurie Connell, who owns the horse.
“But wait until they see him in the Sydney Cup.”
Connell said he had made a fortune in bets, having secured early odds Of 15-1.
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Press, 6 January 1987, Page 26
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258Rocket Racer distressed after win Press, 6 January 1987, Page 26
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