Rockin’ Win to Round Off Flemington Carnival

Promising mare Girl Gone Rockin’ (Redoute’s Choice) delivered a career highlight win landing the Group 2 A$300,000 Momentum Energy Stakes at Flemington on the last day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Girl Gone Rockin’ (outside) wins the Group 2 Momentum Energy Stakes at Flemington.

Trained by Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes, the five-year-old mare has been seen racing between the stables Melbourne and Sydney stable lately, finishing runner-up at her last start in Sydney after running fifth in the Group 2 Rose Kingston Stakes at Flemington fresh up this campaign.

After drawing a difficult barrier of 10 in the 16-horse field for rider Dwayne Dunn, Karaka graduate Girl Gone Rockin’ found a nice position around mid-field and one horse off the rail.

It looked as though leaders Queenstown (Stratum) and Keep de Rose (NZ) (Keeper) had a winning break but over the last 100m Girl Gone Rockin’ really dug deep to hit top gear and put her nose in front on the finishing line.

Fellow Karaka graduate Keep de Rose fought on well and finished in third position only half a length from the winner.

“We were quietly confident heading into the race,” commented Wayne Hawkes. “Her record should probably read more wins than what it has, she has won four now but should read more like seven wins so she is quite a handy horse.

“She is a determined mare, she pinned her ears back and really had a go as she was giving them a big start but did a great job.

“She is a big, strong, scopey mare that we loved from the first time we saw her. She looked more like a colt than a filly and it was good to get a result.

“That’s why people buy expensive fillies with pedigrees, to try make them into better ones so you pay a lot of money and it is hard to get a great return but that was certainly a great return.”

The lightly tried mare has only had 14 starts with Saturday’s victory the fourth in her career with the mare earning A$291,080 in prizemoney for her owners Rosemont Stud Pty Ltd & Mr N G Austin. Rosemont Stud purchased the mare at the 2010 Karaka Premier Sale for $380,000 from Curraghmore Stud.

It was the first stakes victory for Girl Gone Rockin’ and is likely to increase her value as a broodmare prospect.

Bred by Fairway Thoroughbreds, Girl Gone Rockin’ is by champion sire Redoute’s Choice and is out of the Group 2 and multiple stakes winner Sorrento (Just a Dancer) who is already the dam of Group 3 winner Syreon (Flying Spur).

The win by Girl Gone Rockin’ capped off a successful day for Karaka with Precedence (NZ) (Zabeel) winning the Group 3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Shamexpress (NZ) (O’Reilly) the runner-up in the Group 1 VRC Sprint Classic. On Thursday another graduate, Kirramosa (NZ) (Alamosa), landed the Group 1 Crown Oaks for kiwi trainer John Sargent.