“I’m glad she is a filly, I would not like to have her racing against Rap Artist,” said driver Mark Billinger after winning the $60,000 Sky Racing Southern Cross Three-Year-Old Fillies final (2230m) on Rocknroll Magic.
The Emma Stewart-trained Rocknroll Magic ($1 favourite) rolled to the front from gate four and had little more than a trial in scoring a 15-1/2 metre win from Lily Thesinger ($11) with Queen Of Sharkz ($24.30), 11 metres away third.
Billinger kept her comfortable but peeled off quarters of 31.2, 29.7, 28.8 and 28.0 to win untouched and return a mile rate of 1:58.8.
The driver has a good opinion of Rap Artist, which he trains, and won the Three-Year-Old Colts & Geldings Southern Cross final but said Rocknroll Magic was in a class of her own.
“She does it so easy,” Billinger said. “I hardly move to ask to go a bit quicker and she finds another gear.”
Victory meant the filly was able to follow up from taking out the Two-Year-Old fillies final last year at Port Pirie. It was Billinger’s third success in the Three-Year-Old Fillies having won on Saved A Corka (2007) and Lovelist (2015).
Rocknroll Magic was bred and is part-owned by Bruce Cameron who has syndicated the filly to a happy group of owners.
The filly is a perfect introduction for his son Henry, 16, as it is his first involvement as an owner, and for a few others in the syndicate including John Penny, Nathan and Mick Woods and the Magic Sons Group managed by Brenton Thompson.
Cameron said Rocknroll Magic would now be set for the Breeders Crown series in Victoria and he is hoping she can prove her status as one of the best of her age in Australia.
“She’s won 19 of her 26 starts, and her only bad run was at Menangle in the Oaks and she pulled up off colour,” Cameron said.
“She is not a big filly but she is tough and stands up to racing.”
Placegetters Lily Thesinger and Queen of Sharkz both ran well but were not in the same class as the winner.
For the connections of Lily Thesinger, the second place added another $8,338 in stakes following two wins and a second from her previous three starts, after being purchased for just $2500.
