Group 1 Dam a Missed Opportunity at Karaka

A broodmare that could have been purchased for $60,000 at Karaka became a Group 1 producer when He’s Our Rokkii (NZ) (Roc de Cambes) took out the A$500,000 IG Markets Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield on Saturday.

He’s Our Rokkii is out of Clerihew (Lomitas), an unraced descendant of the champion New Zealand mare La Mer (NZ) (Copenhagen II).

Clerihew was offered by Papich Racing at the 2006 National Broodmare & Mixed Bloodstock Sale, where her reserve was $60,000 but bidding only reached $27,500.

Clerihew is now the dam of two winners from three foals to race – the seven-race winner Aluminum Bikerack (NZ) (Fantastic Light) and the Group 1 star He’s Our Rokkii.

The four-year-old was the favourite for Saturday’s Toorak Handicap, his first Group 1 start in Australia, and he lived right up to expectations.

Ridden by Dwayne Dunn for trainers David, Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig, He’s Our Rokkii was awkwardly placed at the top of the straight and struggling to get away from the rail. But then he forced his way out and surged to the lead, winning by half a length.

He’s Our Rokkii has now had 13 starts for seven wins including the Group 1 Toorak, the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes and the Group 3 Frank Packer Plate.

He began his career in the Cambrige stable of Mark Forbes, for whom he finished in the first four in all of his three New Zealand starts including the Group 3 Phoenix Park Classic and the Group 1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes.

“Going through the classes has been great with him,” David Hayes said after the Toorak win. “This has been his first run in a Group 1 and he won it.”