Smart workout shows Beaudiene Rocknroll’s ticker’s just fine for return to Cambridge

Don’t be put off backing Beaudiene Rocknroll at Cambridge on Thursday night because atrial fibrillation took him out of play in his last start at Auckland.

Trainer Ray Green is more worried that the horse’s second line draw might prevent him from repeating the demolition job he did on his Cambridge rivals at his previous start.

“He’s got a bit of an awkward draw but the fibrillation doesn’t worry me. We’ve had a few do it over the years and as a rule they never do it again.”

Green says even the experts struggle to explain why Beaudiene Rocknroll went from travelling like a winner to running like his battery had died within the space of a few hundred metres at Alexandra Park 12 days ago.

Driver Andre Poutama reported he knew something was wrong when he handed up the lead a round from home.

And he had no hesitation in easing the horse out of the race down the back straight.

Vets who checked the horse’s heart rate on returning to the stable detected the fibrillation, caused by the heart’s atria quivering and not contracing to their fullest extent. “He’d reconverted by the time we got home and checked him out,” Green said.

The episode is not necessarily indicitave of an electrical problem with the heart and can happen to horses with depleted potassium or those who are unduly active and sweat freely.

Green said the three-year-old performed right up to his best standard in a workout at Pukekohe last Friday when he was sooled out of the gate to lead over 2050 metres and was collared only late by his better performed stablemate, the three-race winner Frankie Major in a 2:01.9 mile rate.

Drawing the second row is a negative for Beaudiene Rocknroll who has been at his most effective when driven in front. But Green hasn’t given up on the hope that Poutama can still get the horse into the action.

“You can bet the pole runner (You Little Beauty) will be trying to hold up and we’re the only one on the second row so Andre can move out if he wants to.”

Major Achievement is blocked in as eventual winner Over The Top races past.Unlucky

Green believes Major Achievement will be a factor drawn four in the second race.

It is the first time the Art Major three-year-old has drawn an alley after starting from eight and 11 in his first two starts.

Major Achievement showed rapid improvement on his debut fifth when finishing an unlucky fourth at Auckland last week, held up for most of the run home.

Just when driver Peter Ferguson looked like he was going to be able to extricate the gelding 150 metres from home, the eventual winner Over The Top ranged alongside and held him in. Despite that, Major Achievement finished less than two lengths from the winner.

“I’m happy with where he’s at,” Green said. “He keeps improving and, with a bit of luck, he’ll get one soon.”

Lincoln Farms’ third runner Toe The Line, while limited, gets his chance too from the pole in the sixth race.

“If he can hold up, he could get a nice soft trip. He deserves to be one of the favourites.”

The Betting Line four-year-old ran a distant sixth behind stablemate Beaudiene Rocknroll last time but, from a bad draw, was last at the bell and was in restricted room in the run home.