WHEN our sister paper The Herald listed ‘Scotland’s 100 Greatest Sporting Icons’ to kick off 2017, the head of sport was making a point as well as having some fun when he threw into the mix some nominations which occupied spaces lower down.
Then there was Rockavon, standard bearer for the four-legged friends who have carried the sporting dreams of so many.
We expected considerable feedback and duly got it, but one surprising example came on the day of publication with a call from a farmer in Strathaven by the name of Tom Yuill.
He was, he said, the son of Rockavon’s owner – also Tom Yuill – and our selection of the winner of the 1961 2000 Guineas had brought back memories of his father’s horse racing passion.
Yuill Senior was the son and grandson of Glasgow horse dealers who also farmed at Strathaven. A student of form, he bought Rockavon in 1958, placing him in the care of Dunbar trainer George Boyd.
In those days potential contenders for the Classics had to be entered as yearlings and their decision to make that investment was a statement of confidence in the horse by both men.
By the time they went to Newmarket 56 years ago, Rockavon had claimed three victories in minor races as a two-year-old and had just one previous outing as a three-year-old.
“He ran the Free Handicap at Newcastle, first race out of the year, probably not quite tuned up and he finished fourth to another horse that ran in the 2000 Guineas called Duel,” Yuill noted.
Consequently, with Duel also among the contenders for the 2000 Guineas, long odds were available: “They were 66-1 in the books and 106-1 if you bet on him in the Tote.”
His victory by two lengths was, then, one of the great surprise wins in Classic history but, rather than being respected, Rockavon has tended to be derided by some of the sport’s historians.
That, Yuill believes, is profoundly unfair and, his attachment to the story is such that he felt compelled to explain Rockavon’s failure to follow up on that 2000 Guineas victory.
“After he won it no trainer would put a horse up against him in the north of England and Scotland,” he said. “The next race he ran was at Newcastle, a month or so later and he would still be in good shape, but there was only one horse left in against him.”
Lacking match practice, so to speak, he was then once more put up against some of the best horses of his generation and by no means disgraced himself.
“He didn’t run again until the King George and Queen Elizabeth at Ascot. The 2000 Guineas was over a mile. Father always thought he was best at a mile and a quarter, but this was a mile and a half.
“There were only four horses in the race… that year’s French derby winner, Right Royal V, the previous year’s English derby winner St Paddy, Rockavon and a horse called Apostle.
“Right Royal won, St Paddy was second and Rockavon third and I think there were two or three lengths between first and second and second and third. For Rockavon to be useless, to run St Paddy, who would be trying his best, to two or three lengths over St Paddy’s distance doesn’t suggest he was totally useless.”
Yuill reckons Rockavon’s success is unique and worthy of credit rather than scorn.
“Father isn’t the first Scotsman to own a Classic winner, but the others would be the likes of the Earl of Roseberry, the landed gentry and they would have their horses with the best trainers or down at Newmarket,” he noted.
A homegrown Scot who took on and beat the best on their own turf. If that is not worthy of icon status, what is?
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