The wet and wild weather in Sydney this week has trainer David Pfieffer taking a cautious approach towards the chances of juvenile Prodigal Rocker at Rosehill on Saturday.
The track was rated a heavy (9) on Thursday and was not expected to improve much ahead of the Winter Cup program.
Prodigal Rocker, who will line up in Saturday’s Wyndham Estate Hcp (1400m), has started just once for an encouraging half-head second to the Chris Waller-trained Abbotslon on a good track at Kembla Grange last month.
While Pfieffer has a healthy opinion of Prodigal Rocker, he isn’t convinced the youngster will be at his best on rain-affected ground.
“I’m not really confident with him on a wet track but there are limited two-year-old races around,” Pfieffer said.
“I think this horse is going to be super as a three-year-old over a bit of ground so I’ve been trying to find a race over 1400 metres and they’re hard to come by.
“I’m just hoping the rain might have stopped and we get closer to a slow track on Saturday, although I doubt it.”
Prodigal Rocker was heavily backed on debut, crunched in from $26 to start at $7.50.
He settled worse than midfield then ran on strongly to just miss and Pfieffer was happy with what he saw.
“It was a very solid run. He ducked in a bit at the top of the straight but I was happy to see him jump, settle, find the line and be competitive,” Pfieffer said.
“He showed the qualities that suggest he could develop into a nice racehorse.”
Prodigal Rocker was bought for $47,500 at the Magic Millions sale and Pfieffer hasn’t ruled out taking him to the Gold Coast for the flagship race day next year.
It is a carnival he knows well having won last year’s Magic Millions 3YO Trophy (1400m) with Graceful Anna.
“He’s a Magic Millions horse so it might be worth keeping in mind the three-year-old race at the Gold Coast in January,” Pfieffer said.
Abbotslon will again be among Prodigal Rocker’s rivals on Saturday, along with Waller-trained stablemate Subarc.
AAP TURF
