Roca continues Birchley’s Dream Karaka record
Queensland-based trainer Liam Birchley continued his remarkable record in the Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m) when Dream Roca took out the Ellerslie feature on Saturday, bringing up another stakes winner for her Westbury Stud sire El Roca (Fastnet Rock) in the process.
Sent out second favourite at $4.80 after breaking her maiden on her second start in a 1000-metre Eagle Farm juvenile handicap on December 13, Dream Roca jumped well from gate one of 14 under Ben Thompson, and travelled just behind the pace.
A huge upset threatened when leader Magill (Farnan) – the Hastings-trained longshot who started at $151 in some markets – maintained his advantage long after turning for home.
Dream Roca had trouble extricating herself from a pocket for the first half of the straight, but once clear at the 180 metres charged hard after Magill. The bolter was not to be easily denied, boxing on hard on the fence, but was finally overhauled late on as Dream Roca scored by 0.2 lengths.
Team Hayes’s Caulfield Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Torture (Sword Of State) took third at $5.50, while odds-on favourite Kinnaird (Home Affairs) came in last.
Birchley – who has 35 named horses on his books at his Sunshine Coast stable – isn’t known as one of Queensland’s largest trainers, and counts three Group 2 victories as his career highlights on the black type scale.
Yet he has now crossed the Tasman to win New Zealand’s lucrative NZ$1 million feature three times, having also scored with Sister Havana (General Nediym) in 2010, and gelding Hardline (Showcasing) in 2015.
Dream Roca’s success also brought up a hat-trick for fillies in the race, with La Dorada (Super Seth) successful last year, and Velocious (Written Tycoon) taking the honours in 2024.
Asked for the secret of his success in the event, Birchley told Sky: “Just to get an athlete. That’s what you need here.
“It’s tremendous to get it three times. I know how hard it is. The standard of two-year-olds here has improved markedly over the last ten years.”
Dream Roca – one of 13 stakes winners from 315 runners (4.1 per cent) for El Roca (Fastnet Rock) – was bought for $75,000 last year at Karaka from Westbury’s draft by Bloodstock Solutions.
Raced by a large syndicate, she showed talent with a 0.9 length second on debut at Eagle Farm before her breakthrough win, and looked ultra impressive with her dogged finish when stepped up to the 1200 metres on Saturday.
“We were lucky enough to draw number one, which saves you a lot of work in the run. We could take it easy and save the best for the end,” Birchley said.
“From barrier one, you’re going to get the best run no matter what if you’ve got the right jock. He’s an emerging superstar this jock [Thompson].”
He added: “I’ve got a lot of really close friends in this horse, going back a long way. One of them has sadly just died in the last few weeks, so this means a lot.”
Thompson said the win in his first look at Ellerslie felt “very surreal”.
“This is a class filly,” he told Sky. “All credit to Liam Birchley. He’s a brilliant trainer and it just fills you with so much confidence riding any horse of his, especially a two-year-old.
“The barrier was just ideal. I settled for a trail. I was pretty much just guided by her [Dream Roca]. I’d ridden her in all three starts so I had a lot of confidence in her.
“I thought I’d need a bit of luck, but with the track playing so fair I’d just need to be patient and wait for a run, and she gave me a great kick.”
Bred by Westbury boss Gerry Harvey, Dream Roca is the first foal out of Petrachor (Redwood), a five-time winner in New Zealand.
Third dam Tanith (Chief’s Crown) ran third in Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and was second at Group 2 level.
Fourth dam Bislotto (Bellotto) won a Flemington Listed and threw the Group 3 and Listed winning Bel Danoro (Danehill), as well as the dams of elite-level victors Mascarpone (Shooting To Win) and Sofia Rosa (Makfi).
Petrachor now has a yearling filly by another Westbury sire in Swiss Ace (Secret Savings) and was covered again by El Roca last spring.