Twice Singapore Horse Of The Year Rocket Man is set to enjoy a deserved retirement in the equine friendly surrounds of trainer Mike Stewart’s ‘The Dunes’ training centre at Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula.
Rocket Man in action
Rocket Man was honoured with an official retirement ceremony at the final Singapore meeting of the season last Sunday.
The champion, who carried international owner Fred Crabbia’s famous black and red silks to 20 wins, five seconds and one fourth from 27 starts, stepped down with stakes earnings in excess of $6.7 million – the highest ever made by a local racehorse.
A career highlight was undeniably his historic Gr1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m) win, followed by the 2011 Gr1 KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m) win, and a dead-heat with the John Moore-trained One World in the Gr2 Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) in Hong Kong in 2010.
Rocket Man
The handsome bay was ridden at all three international wins by Felix Coetzee, while his countrymen Robbie Fradd (eight wins) and Barend Vorster (seven wins) also had the pleasure of being associated with the star.
Now an 11 yo, the son of Viscount was once ranked the world’s second-highest rated sprinter, behind top horses like Hong Kong’s Sacred Kingdom and Australia’s wonder mare Black Caviar.
Rocket Man – relaxed
Four years after his last race, the most globally recognisable racing brand name to have come out of Singapore in the modern era was paraded in front of his adoring fans before the running of the Rocket Man Farewell Stakes, a $125 000 race over 1100m.
With jockey Barend Vorster aboard, he was presented with a basket of carrots while 2000 black Rocket Man caps were handed out to fans.
Trainer Patrick Shaw and his staff, including assistant-trainers Ricardo Le Grange and Jacci de Tert, were on hand to see their hero take his final bow.
“It’s every trainer’s wish to have a horse like Rocket Man,” said Shaw, who himself is taking a 6 ½-month sabbatical from December 15, and will hand over to Le Grange in the interim.
“I’m going through mixed emotions as I watch him say his goodbye. On one hand, I’m sad to see him go as he’s done so much for us.
Pat Shaw – ‘mixed emotions’
“But at the same time, he’s going to a lovely place on the beach in Cape Town where he will spend the rest of his retiring days.
“My good friend and trainer Mike Stewart has a stabling facility there and has a small area on the side where he will stay.
“My daughter is in Cape Town and will visit him often. I will be going up and down back home, and every time I go to Cape Town, I will drop by to see him.”
Shaw said that Rocket Man’s welfare had always been his and Fred Crabbia’s No 1 priority.
“It was a situation where I was always worried by his injury. You can’t always see it and we had to go on the vet’s advice,” he explained.
Rocket Man has for the best part of his racing career been plagued by leg issues – first a condylar fracture to his offside cannon bone as a three-year-old and then a suspensory ligament injury to his nearside leg three years later, but as a sign of his bottomless courage, overcame them to continue racing at the highest level.
