Former smart two-year-old Rocket Tiger has already taken Scott Spackman on the ride of a lifetime, but the Wagga trainer believes the best is still to come.
Now a four-year-old, Rocket Tiger will line up for just his second start in almost two years when he resumes in the TAB Handicap (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday in a bid to resurrect his promising career.
Runner-up to Home Affairs in the 2021 Silver Slipper and midfield in Stay Inside’s Golden Slipper, Rocket Tiger didn’t race for another 12 months after putting himself through a fence and suffering a hairline fracture to a shoulder.
The injury required him to be boxed for several months and while Spackman nursed the horse back to full health and was delighted with his midfield return at Flemington last March, Rocket Tiger’s demeanour couldn’t be ignored.
“He went to Flemington that day and ran an absolute blinder, but Damian (Lane) got off and suggested the horse had had enough,” Spackman said.
“He’d had twelve months off, but he’d never had a chance just to be a horse, so we made the decision to give him a good break and bring him back after he’d had a really good spell.
“We could have pushed on and I think I could have got him to be winning races, but it just wouldn’t have been the right way of doing it.”
Since returning to work after six months frolicking in a paddock, Rocket Tiger has regained his spark and while he has 60kg and barrier 11 to contend with at Randwick, Spackman will be disappointed if he isn’t competitive.
“I think he is going to run a really cheeky race,” he said.
“He’s a very exciting little horse. He’s not royally bred or anything, he is just a dead-set trier and he doesn’t know how to run a bad race.”
By unfashionable sire Cluster, Rocket Tiger is a $7 chance with betr who have last start winner Po Kare Kare as a $3 top pick.