Double for Oxx as Rocktique scores on debut

The well-supported Rocktique made a successful debut in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden, providing her trainer John Oxx with a quick double, having won the previous contest with Stepwise

Running in the well-known silks of Pat Garvey, the American bred daughter of Rock Hard Ten was 10/3 this morning before being backed on track from 5/2 to 2/1 joint favourite at the off.

Having chased the leaders for much of the contest she was pushed along to challenge two furlongs out, under Niall McCullagh.

She hit the front over a furlong out and she kept on well inside the final furlong to beat the other joint favourite, One True Love for Aidan and Joseph O’Brien (was a pound overweight) by a length and a half.

Belle De Crecy (14/1) didn’t get the clearest of runs and she finished a half a length back in third on her first start for Johnny Murtagh with Fergal Lynch in the saddle.

John Oxx said afterwards: "She is a nice filly and was quite professional there today.

"She may have been in front soon enough but she was in a good position all the way through the race.

"We will see how she goes but beforehand I was thinking if she won today that I’d step her up to a mile and a quarter for the Oaks Trial at Naas but now I’m not so sure whether we will stick to a mile or go up to a mile and a quarter.

"She likes good ground and she would probably go on a little ease in the ground.

"She is a fine big filly and we have always thought a good bit of her. She fractured a pastern around this time last year when she was about a week off a run."

The winner was purchased for $70,000 US Dollars at Keeneland in September of 2011 and she holds entries in the Listed Noblesse Stakes at Cork and the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes at Fairyhouse.

Additional reporting by Alan Magee