Sunday, July 29, 2018
Mount Gambier 512 metre track record holder Rockoon has missed out on a Darwin Cup finals berth after running a luckless third in the fourth and final heat at Winnellie Park on Sunday night.
Owned by Keith Hellmuth and trained at Compton by Tracie Price, Rockoon was a $2.25 favourite but after jumping well from box eight found trouble at the first turn.
From then on the white and black son of Peter Rocket and Raya Riot faced a huge task to finish in the first two and qualify for next Sunday’s Group 3 Darwin Cup final (537 m).
In the end he made up a stack of ground to finish three lengths from the winner Weeona Jimmy who ran the quickest of the four heats – 31.70 seconds – Rockoon now likely to be second reserve for the final.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Price’s nicely-bred Lika Missile impressed when winning the Winmore Greyhound Kennels Maiden (512 m) at Tara Raceway by six lengths in 30.25 seconds.
By Nitro Burst out of O Cee Ya, the November 2016 black dog will now be set for the forthcoming Peter Rocket Winter Classic, for dogs and bitches whelped on or after July 1, 2016, heats of which will be run at Tara Raceway on Sunday, August 19.