Andre gets Beaudiene to Rocknroll at last - and Ray’s relieved to see Cambridge trouncing

Beaudiene Rocknroll’s all-the-way win at Cambridge tonight came as more relief than anything for trainer Ray Green.

The near two length trouncing went a long way to confirming that Green wasn’t wrong in his initial assessment of the horse as a two-year-old.

“I thought he was a $100,000 colt at the time,” said Green.

“But he’d gone a bit strange lately. He’d seemingly lost all form, couldn’t run on, and just wasn’t able to perform like I knew he could.”

Green was so enamoured with Beaudiene Rocknroll when he first went into a 50-50 deal with Southland breeders Dave and Dawn Kennedy, he recommended Copy That’s owners Merv and Meg Butterworth buy a share in him.

“I was staying at Merv’s place in Melbourne at the time and he rang Dave and bought 25%.”

And, having too many horses of his own already, Green passed on his 50% to Lincoln Farms’ owners John and Lynne Street.

But the early hopes Green held for the colt were dashed when he broke a pedal bone after only two starts and had to be turned out for a long spell.

It was 15 months before Beaudiene Rocknroll made it back to the racetrack. But even though he won his third start back, with a three length drubbing at Cambridge, the rot set in at his next start last June when he fibrillated and was pulled up at Auckland.

Green also battled with tying up issues in the months that followed until his last start at Cambridge in September when the horse caused a false start and, badly wound up afterwards, choked down and was again pulled out of the race.

“He’s had the lot happen to him,” Green said. “But he’s a nice horse and tonight they were never going to beat him.”

Even though Green thought Beaudiene Rocknroll would be underdone given he was beaten into fourth by Major Achievement at the workouts last Friday, his stablemate never looked like catching him tonight despite trailing all the way.

Andre Poutama’s skills helped Beaudiene Rocknroll to his all-the-way win.The win highlighted the skills of driver Andre Poutama, who joined the mobile gate quite late to prevent his charge from getting too excited, then rated the horse beautifully, giving his rivals no chance with closing splits of 57.9 and 27.6 for an overall mile rate of 1:58.6 for the 1700 metres.

“He’s got to do a bit more to be worth anything but he’d be a good horse for Australia,” Green said. “He’s the sort of horse they like to buy - he’s got good gate speed and he keeps going. And they like A Rocknroll Dances over there.”

Green only got the horse to train because Kennedy didn’t put him through the sale ring, knowing “you couldn’t give the A Rocknroll Dances away at that stage.

“But his pedigree is superb - as good as they get - and there are multiple Group One winners in the family.”

Green, himself has trained a number of them, Lincoln Farms having raced and sold Beaudiene Boaz (25 wins), Beaudiene Beaufighta (eight wins) and Beaudiene Western. Their dam Beaudiene Babe also left Beaudiene Bad Babe (22 wins) and Guns N Roses (13 wins).

Green more recently trained a half sister, Beaudiene Blinkz, for Kennedy but when she broke a bone and had lameness issues, she was retired to stud.

Green also educated Beaudiene Blinkz’s first foal, after his wife Debbie bought her Sweet Lou filly for Australian owner Marg Lee at the Christchurch yearling sale in 2022.

Named Jilliby Illuminate, she looked promising when Green sent her to Victoria where she is unbeaten in two starts in October and November.