Racing Centre

FIRST-SEASON trainer Andrew Kinsella is hoping Rock Of Rochelle can make the step up from Listed winner to Group 1 star after the colt was yesterday supplemented at a cost of £12,000 for next Friday’s Shadwell Middle Park Stakes.

The son of Rock Of Gibraltar has a progressive profile, building on a debut second with subsequent successes in a Curragh maiden and then the Blenheim Stakes at the same venue.

Ad Valorem won both of those contests before racing to glory in the Middle Park Stakes. Now Co.Kildare based Kinsella will once more send his charge in the hoof-prints of the former Ballydoyle inmate as he targets the prestigious six-furlong contest on the Rowley Mile.

Kinsella, who trains less than a dozen horses - all for Her Diamond Necklace Farms - said: “Rock Of Rochelle is a genuine colt going in the right direction and deserves to run in a race like the Middle Park.

“The horse would get seven furlongs now, no problems and it was a bit of dilemma as to whether we wanted to wait for the Killavullan Stakes (on October 29 at Leopardstown).

“But the ground was the big deciding factor for us. He handles soft but he ideally he’d want good ground or good to firm. Newmarket gives us the best chance of genuine good, fast ground.

“He is a colt who is going forward and this is the next obvious step. If we’d gone for a Group 3 I feel it would be a sideways route. By running in the Middle Park, we’ll find out what we have for next year.

“I think he will be very competitive and if we finish fourth then we’ll cover our costs., but I would love to have a winner at Newmarket.

“We are hoping to follow Ad Valorem, who won the maiden that Rock Of Rochelle did, the Blenheim Stakes and then the Middle Park.”

Rock Of Rochelle, who will once again be ridden by Valdir De Souza, will arrive in Newmarket early next week.

Kinsella, 35, said: “We will give him a gallop on Friday morning and he will ship to Newmarket with a travelling companion on Monday.

“I will be at the sales at Goffs at the start of next week but will come across to Newmarket on Tuesday night.

“The horse will have time to settle in and he’ll stretch out on Tuesday and Wednesday before having a bit of a blow on Thursday.”

The three-day fixture commences on Thursday, October 4. Please contact the advance booking line on 01638 675 500 or click on the 'Buy Tickets' link.

By Tony Rushmer