Sprinter Roch N Horse pulls off huge win

Jamie Mott celebrates a special win aboard Roch 'N' Horse in the A$3 million Group 1 Champions Sprint. Photo / Bruno Cannatelli

Kiwi speedster Roch 'N' Horse has pulled off her second enormous sprint shock at Flemington this year, but this time, it was bigger and better.

The New Zealand owned and bred mare, who was trained here until earlier this year but is now prepared out of expat Michael Moroney's Victorian stable, stunned the world's best sprinters to win the A$3 million Champions Sprint on the last day of the Melbourne Cup carnival.

It was a win similar to the eye but so much better in every other way to her 100-1 win in the Newmarket Handicap down Flemington's famous straight six (1200m) chute in February.

That win was historic because New Zealand sprinters beating Australia's best at their own caper is rare, but this time, Roch 'N' Horse beat the last two winners of The Everest in Giga Kick and Nature Strip, the latter rated the world's best sprinter.

He had led the stand-side bunch for much of the race but Roch 'N' Horse came through the pack to beat the best speed machines in Australia, under the weight-for-age scale in a A$3m race.

While her 24-1 odds may not have endeared her to punters, on the class of rivals alone, her performance must go down as one of the greatest by a New Zealand sprinter, sitting somewhere close to Mr Tiz's staggering Galaxy Stakes victory of 1991.

Roch 'N' Horse is part-owned by Sam and Catriona Williams, who own Little Avondale Stud in Wairarapa and stand her sire Per Incanto. Already the leading sire in Hong Kong, Per Incanto is now the sire of a two-time Group 1-winning sprinting mare in Australia, the sort of profile studmasters here can only usually dream of.

Her victory was the headline act on the final carnival day of what has been a magical spring for New Zealand trained, owned and/or bred horses in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Of the other Kiwis yesterday, Aegon was fourth in the A$3m Champions Mile but Mr Maestro and Mustang Valley were well beaten in the Champions Stakes, won by Zaaki, with Anamoe only fourth.