Four starts for four seconds – most trainers would be tearing their hair out but Keith Dryden says he’s done the first part of his job with Rockabye Roxy who will be out to shed the bridesmaid tag at Nowra on Monday.
That first part is to get the mare’s form sorted out after joining his and Libby Snowden’s stable from the Gary Portelli yard as a five start maiden.
She’s a nine start maiden ahead of the Thank You Bob Young Plate (1400m) but with those four seconds on end Dryden is confident enough that elusive win isn’t too far away.
“All I can do as a trainer is get her racing consistently, I’m pretty realistic about it,’’ Dryden said.
“She keeps running second, she’s trying her best, she’s just got to get a bit of luck.
“She was in Sydney and Louis (Mihalyka) wanted to give her a try in the bush. When I got her she wanted to charge and take off and do what she wanted to go.
“We worked on it and we’ve got her settled down, and now we can work her how I want to.”
Three of Rockabye Roxy’s seconds have been by less than half a length.
In the latest, at Wagga on a heavy track a few weeks ago, she was a $1.65 favourite but conceded the winner Seguro a big start before cutting the margin right down to around a long neck.
Dryden says in time the four-year-old is going to excel over more ground, and is looking forward to seeing her on a firmer track, than the 1400m presented to her lately but he said there’s plenty of time for that.
“I don’t want to fall into the trap of hunting her up because she tends to want to race back a bit and I really think she’s a 2000m horse,’’ he said.
“I’m not game to go there yet because she pulls so hard. I’ve got her settled down but I reckon over 2000m she might pull a bit so I’ll persevere for a while.”
Stablemate Kisembo hasn’t hit the frame in five starts so far, four of them on the Acton track, so a return to the grass has Dryden hopeful he can show a glimpse.
“He does show me plenty on the track but he’s been going terrible,’’ he said.
“I thought I’ll give him a start on the grass and see if we can get improvement.
“I bought him out of a paddock as a young horse, and he showed a bit the first time I sent him out to gallop with a nice horse but he hasn’t gone on with it.
“He didn’t run a bad race in his first race on the grass but since then all his runs have been on the synthetic.”
Words: Ray Hickson/Racing NSW
Image: Bradley Photos