When you come off the racetrack retiring as 2010 USA Horse Of The Year, USA 3YO Of The Year and the highest earning and best son of Rocknroll Hanover with earnings in excess of US$2.7 million, it is only natural to expect breeders to keep a very close eye on Rock N Roll Heaven’s early progeny performance as the best indicator of whether he is likely to be a success story at Stud.
With his first season crop in Australia approaching the end of their two year old season as the Breeders Crown is almost upon us and the business end of the season about to crank up in North America for his second season Northern Hemisphere crop we are at a stage where we can possibly ascertain some early trends.
Perhaps the most defining trend, and it is still only early days yet, is the performance of his fillies as juveniles and the mark they have made on the racetracks in both North America and Australasia.
Rock N Roll Heaven’s top three performers to date in North America are fillies. His first season results in North America showed that eight of his top ten earners were fillies.
This initial trend has also continued in Australia where his top five earners are fillies.
Perhaps his fillies are more early maturing than his colts. Certainly, when talking with leading trainers throughout Australasia, most have a Rock N Roll Heaven colt “waiting in the wings” that they think a lot of and are not too far away from stepping out into the limelight.
On the plus side, breeders who breed to Rock N Roll Heaven and get a filly foal can take comfort in knowing there is a lot of upside to having a Rock N Roll Heaven filly given this early trend.
But this is not an unusual phenomena nor should it be concerning. We only have to look Christian Cullen’s early breeding to take some comfort here. For the first five seasons his racetrack results were dominated by his colts to such an extent that “ where are his fillies?” became a catch phrase. And then his fillies came. This also happens in the thoroughbred arena. Top sire O’Reilly also had breeders labelling him as a sire of fillies only in his first five seasons and then his fillies duly arrived.
What we do know from the early racetrack results of Rock N Roll Heaven’s fillies is that they represent quality and carry considerable class.
The following is a list of Rock N Roll Heaven’s top eight earners to date in Australia. We have highlighted both damsire and sireline to see if we can establish any favoured breeding trends as well as for comparative purposes with his top North American performers to date.
It is probably far too early to draw any definitive conclusions on what the best crosses might be for Rock N Roll Heaven given the very small size of this sample but we can see reverse-sexing opportunities to both Artsplace and Cam Fella shining through as well as the natural Direct Scooter sex-balance that Rock N Roll Heaven offers for mares from that sireline. These are in line with what we forecast before Rock N Roll Heaven bred his first mare at Pepper Tree Farm.
Every Studmaster standing a new stallion knows that the stallion is going to be measured by the performance of that stallion’s first crop. And the defining point of that measure is success at Group 1 level.
On this basis, Rock N Roll Heaven has passed the test.
From the group listed above, both Jilliby Jitterbug and Heavens Trend have been Group 1 winners with Heavens Trend also providing Rock N Roll Heaven with the added distinction of being the sire of the Australasian Two Year Old Fillies recordholder at 1:52.0.
Rocknroll Magic is a multiple Group 2 winner whilst Soho Lexington and Georgia Grace have also both won at Group 2 level.
With the 2014-15 Australian season fast drawing to a close Rock N Roll Heaven comfortably leads the Sires 2YO Premiership, a commendable effort for a new season sire.
In Victoria, from 82 races Rock N Roll Heaven’s progeny have secured 20 wins and total Stake Earnings of $377,823, well clear of his next rival and last seasons premier two year old sire Art Major with 17 wins from 124 races and total progeny earnings of $150,869 whilst in New South Wales from 101 races Rock N Roll Heaven’s progeny have secured 13 wins and total Stakes of $202,195 where he trails only Somebeachsomewhere who has 14 wins and $353,974.
In New Zealand, Rock N Roll Heaven from a live foal crop of just 37, has had just the six starters for three winners and two placegetters to date, his winners being the colt I Will Rock You ( out of an In The Pocket mare, Direct Scooter sireline ) and the fillies Killer Queen ( out of a mare by Partywiththebigdog, Artsplace sireline ) and Emily Blunt ( out of an Elsu mare, Bret Hanover sireline ) whilst Rocknroll Princess ( out of a Christian Cullen mare, Direct Scooter sireline ) and MacKenzie ( out of a Safely Kept mare, Most Happy Fella sireline ) have been placed to date.
As mentioned earlier, we are only just beginning to get into the business end of the season in North America where a lot can change very quickly but Rock N Roll Heaven’s 2014 first crop racetrack results in the USA told us from 103 foals he had 74 starters bankrolling total Stakes of $1,705,999 placing him 6th on the Leading Money Winning Sires Premiership and 10th on the Average Earnings Per Foal table at $16,563 , the latter seeing him just one place behind benchmark stallion Bettor’s Delight.
In Canada, where he is represented by significantly less numbers, the 2014 2YO Sires Table tells us he had 62 starters earning $1,731,306 placing him 6th on the Leading Money Winning Sires list.
So far in 2015 from a smaller second season crop Rock N Roll Heaven has had just the 31 Canadian starters placing him in 20th position with total progeny earnings of $268,117 whilst his Three Year Old crop has had 67 starters for progeny earnings of $1,802,916 and currently lying in 5th position.
The following is a table listing Rock N Roll Heaven’s top ten North American progeny performers and makes for interesting comparison with the corresponding Australian table. For purposes of comparison we have set this out in the same format as the Australian table.
It should be noted that this table includes both two and three year old performance combined in contrast to the Australian table which is solely on two year old performance. In all instances in the North American table the personal best times were achieved at three years of age.
The North American table makes for interesting reading by comparison with the Australian table in that although featuring some sharp damsire influences through the likes of Jate Lobell and Dragon Again in particular, it is heavily biased towards the Cam Fella / Most Happy Fella sireline.
This would tend to suggest that North American breeders chased Rock N Roll Heaven for his raw speed and wicked acceleration attributes to complement or inject some life into the renowned stamina and toughness influences of the Cam Fella / Most Happy Fella sireline. To a lesser degree these same forces also apply to the Artsplace / Abercrombie sireline which has also been well supported in breedings to Rock N Roll Heaven.
As the Australasian Breeders Crown lies imminent and the business end of the season approaches in North America there is little doubt that Rock N Roll Heaven’s profile as a serious Commercial stallion is set to grow.
Bettor’s Delight has had a largely uncontested time in the stallion ranks in the past few seasons and there is general feeling amonst breeders that the time is near for a “changing of the guard”.
It just could be that Rock N Roll Heaven puts his hand up to be that next guard.
Ken Mackay
Premier Pedigrees
August 2015.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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