TRAINER Paul Rocke will resist the temptation to make a quick fire trip to South Australia to take advantage of stable star Arousing Suspicion’s stunning rise to prominence this autumn.
The three-year-old son of Excites was responsible an easy first-up victory on his home track at Mornington prior to an electric 4-lens win at Caulfield last Saturday.
“It was a pretty strong race for this time of year,” Rocke said,”I knew he’d improved a lot from a spring three-year-old to an autumn three-year-old but I didn’t think he had improved that much!”
“We will go to Flemington in a fornight now. I won’t go to Adelaide, I’ll keep him at 1400m for one more (run). There is a mile race in Adelaide but it’s worth $80,000 whereas the race in Melbourne is worth $100,000, so it doesn’t make much sense to travel for less money.
“I guess we have to make a decision afer that whether we push on in Melbourne but he doesn’t like wet tracks which is an issue. The other option is to look at suitable 3YO races in Brisbane but we’d have to be pretty cautious about the weather, it’s been pretty wet up there lately,” Rocke added.
Arousing Suspicion was bred by Raheen Stud in Queensland and was sold to Rocke at session two of the Magic Millions Yearling Sale for $40,000.
“He was a really exceptional yearling,” says Rocke.
“I wasn’t even specifically looking for him, I was just walking around the yards and I literally walked past his box and saw him standing in there and thought I better get him out and that was it, I bought him.”
Rocke has shown a great deal of faith in Arousing Suspicion, Excites and Secret Savings mare Special Package having bought the younger brother and sister when they were sent to sale.
“I like the breed. I have another 2YO by Excites out of a different mare,” he said.
“My thinking with Excites being by Danewin who sired Theseo and County Tyrone and those type of horses that they just got better as they got older and I was banking with Excites that would be similar and he seems to be proving the point.”
One Excites that looks destined to play a part in the Adelaide carnival currently underway is the Mark Kavanagh trained Schumacher who swept past his rivals to record a superlative win at Morphettville Parks hours after Arousing Suspicion’s Caulfield triumph.
Schumacher is from Excites first crop and has won three and placed three times from his six career starts.
His win comes hot on the heels of the locally trained Excites Zelady’s win in the Group 3 SAJC Breeders’ Stakes (1200m) for trainer Chris Bieg.