Young Aquis Farm stallion Jukebox received a huge boost when the Barry Lockwood-trained Johnny Rocker went coast to coast in Saturday’s Listed Oxlade Stakes (1300m) at Eagle Farm.
A winner over 1000m on the Poly Track when on debut at the Sunshine Coast on May 27, Johnny Rocker took the step up to 1300m in his stride.
With Samantha Collett in the saddle, the son of Jukebox found the front from an outside barrier. Travelling within himself, Johnny Rocker was untroubled to defeat the Snitzel colt Stampede by one and a half lengths with the Bel Esprit gelding Thelwell three-quarter of a length back in third.
“I was worried about the alley, and thankfully, the owners went over all the form and worked out we’d be in the first four, but I didn’t think we’d get across and lead so easily,” Lockwood said.
“Early days, he always showed ability. I gave him a jumpout on the grass at Doomben, and he went well, but it was so wet we had to take him to the Gold Coast to trial him. There were no more races except the poly, so he went there, won it, and now he’s back on the grass.
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“We’ll see how he goes, but we might wait for the early three-year-olds races.”
Samantha Collett said Johnny Rocker loves to get out and run.
"He really rose to the occasion today. He just loves his job; his whole personality is great. It makes my job easy because he wants to be a racehorse," Collett said.
“Early in the week, I had a chat to ‘Baz’ (Lockwood), and I think if we’d drawn closer we might not have led. But he hopped away so well, and I could just control the race, and he was always just ready for me to ask him to go.”
A homebred for Jamie Stumer and partners, Johnny Rocker is the fourth winner from as many foals of the winning Magic Albert mare Margene a three-quarter sister to Group 1 Emirates Stakes and Group 1 BTC Cup winner Albert The Fat and a half-sister to stakes-placed Mastery.
Johnny Rocker is the final foal of Margene, who died in July last year, and is the first stakes winner for Aquis Farm’s Jukebox.
A brilliantly fast son of Snitzel, Jukebox will stand for a value fee of $6,600 at Aquis in 2022.
