Filly ready to rock and roll
Keltic Rockstar is in the right order to improve on her encouraging debut performance when she fronts up at New Plymouth.
The Rock ‘n’ Pop filly runs in the New Zealand Bloodstock Insurance Pearl Series Race (1200m) on Thursday with part-owner and trainer Donald Caskey’s only reservation being the ground.
“I’d like to see a Slow 7, but if it gets to heavy then my gut feeling is that she will probably cop it a bit better than we think,” he said.
Keltic Rockstar ran third in her first appearance at Hawke’s Bay, where she got out late to finish strongly behind Raposa Rapido, a younger brother to the Group 1 winner Volpe Veloce.
“She’s showed us plenty and we were happy to get that run under her belt and she’s definitely improved,” Caskey said.
He secured Keltic Rockstar after a chance visit to Karaka in 2015.
“We were actually on our way to Hawaii and decided to drop in and I viewed her at the weanling sale,” Caskey said.
“She was passed in and when we got home we contacted Curraghmore and got her.”
While Caskey has confidence in Keltic Rockstar’s New Plymouth prospects, he is unsure what to expect of stablemate Kaliper in the Stable Books Supporting NZ Trainers’ Maiden (1100m).
“She’s a bit of an enigma,” he said.
“I thought she would be hard to beat at New Plymouth two runs back and she let me down badly and the next run there was no reason for her not to finish the race off either.
“She’s dropping back to 1100m to try and build some confidence, it’s wait and see with her.”