STRATHFIELDSAYE-TRAINED pacer Rocknroll Eyes again showed his fighting qualities, overcoming a momentary lapse in concentration, to grind out a tough win at Terang on Saturday night.
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After finding the lead early in the race, the Julie Douglas-trained pacer shifted out with about 400m to travel, gifting an opportunity to his challengers.
But the Rocknroll Hanover gelding was able to recover his momentum by the top of the straight and battle on for a gritty NR 75 to 84 victory by 1.1m over the fast-charging Terryama and Majestic Cruiser.
The win gave Rocknroll Eyes his second win from his past four starts and boosted his career record to 18 wins from 91 starts.
Winning driver Darby McGuigan was counting his luck after snaring a soft lead aboard Rocknroll Eyes, following a frenetic early battle out front between Ryan Duffy on Boncel Benjamin and James Herbertson on Our Millionaire.
"I was loving it; I knew once that they put that early speed on, Ryan wasn't going to be able to hold me out because Rocknroll Eyes is such a one-pace horse," he said on Trots Vision.
"It was either going to be giving it to him in the breeze, or he could hand up to me and try and sit on me.
"So I was pretty confident when they went so hard early."
The win capped a handy night for the Douglas stable following a second in the opening race with Torrid Saint and a third later on with Ozzie Battler.
McGuigan was able to offer an excuse for the gelding's late-race mishap.
"He normally wears a burr on his outside and I'm not sure it was there tonight or not, and without that burr, he gets running up the track a bit," he said.
It was McGuigan's sixth win on Rocknroll Eyes, who has been trained throughout his career by Glenn Douglas and Mildura's Geoff Lucas, but in more recent times has been under the care of Julie Douglas.
The talented young reinsman attributed the support of Lucas, as one of the owners of Rocknroll Eyes, as a major factor in his fruitful and continuing association with the horse.
"Geoff has been a great supporter of mine the whole way through,' he said.
"Before I was driving, he used to come down - he had family in Gordon where we are - and he used to keep old Daylight Dan at our place and work him when he was here.
"Our relationship's born from there.
"I was driving Daylight Dan and then I ended up driving Rocknroll Eyes up in Mildura for Geoff and now he's gone to (the Douglas stable) I've kept the drive."
The win topped an amazing weekend for Lucas, who entered Saturday on a high, following a 10th straight win with the former Glenn Douglas-trained pacer Bernie Winkle, at Mildura's City Oval Paceway on Friday night.
Owned by Eric and Heather Anderson, Bernie Winkle became only the 74th standardbred since 2000 to produce a double-digit winning streak.
The seven-year-old kicked-off his Mildura streak on April 24 and has started as a short-priced favourite (between $2.30 and $1.10) in all but the first two of those 10 runs.
The son of Rock N Roll Heaven has now won 32 races and been placed 40 times in 186 starts.
Read more: Major Jodi turns heads at Terang
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