Rockoon makes his much anticipated return to racing this Thursday night after almost five months away from the track.
Just six months ago he was the talk of the town and touted as the sport’s next boom stayer. He won the group 1 Hume Cup, then was a finalist of the group 1 Bold Trease. It was his next outing in a trial where he suffered a fractured hock that has since kept him on the sidelines.
“We trialed him as we were getting him ready for the Sale Cup. When it happened we thought he was finished. When you know your dog has a broken hock, you automatically think that’s the end of their racing career. We thought the worst but to know that we’ve actually got him back to nearly where he was at, it’s good, really good,” said co-trainer Lisa Hellmuth, wife of Keith.
Just like any elite athlete, time away from sport can heavily impact fitness levels upon a return. Hellmuth said the hardest part about ‘Rocky’s’ come back was building up his fitness.
“Because he had to have so much time off he’s lost a lot of fitness. You don’t want to trial too much because you’re worried that he’s going to get injured again. As they get older, if you give them too much time off because of injury they tend to injure something else.
“We’re trying not to push him too hard but we’ve got to try and get him fit enough – we’re taking our time. We take him down the slipping track every day and he’s trialed about half a dozen times. He’s probably not a 100% fit but we’ve got to get him started somewhere, so now is as good a time as any.”
Rockoon returns over 595m and has drawn favourably in box 1. He meets a sharp field that includes Out Of Range, Maurice Minor, Neo Cleo and Scott Keeping.
“Fitness wise he’s about 80%. I think he can place, but I don’t expect him to win. Having box 1 helps him out a bit, hopefully he doesn’t get knocked around too much at the start.”
“As long as he gets around safely, I’ll be happy.”
The question that looms large is whether we’ll see Rockoon head to Speed Star. All things being equal, we could see him solo trial on the final trial day Sunday May 6.
“That’s our aim at the moment. We’re hoping to get a couple of runs into him before the last day of trials. He might run and win in a good time before it but if he doesn’t, at least we’ve got that option to trial after he’s had a couple of races.
“By then we’ll know exactly where he’s at and whether he’s fit enough for the Sandown Cup.”
Speed Star is set for Thursday May 10 and will see 40 of Australia’s fastest greyhounds compete in 20 match races over all three distances. Click here for more information
Click here for Thursday’s fields
