'You've got to be kidding me' - 100-1 rag beats 66-1 shot in remarkable Group 1

History will tell you that New Zealand-breds are famed for their staying power, while their antipodean cousins across the Tasman are better known for their sprinting prowess. But on Saturday a five-year-old mare named Roch ‘N’ Horse beat the Australians at their own game when she became just the second New Zealand-bred winner in the last 37 years of the time-honoured Newmarket Handicap.

In a stunning upset at Flemington, the 100-1 shot beat 66-1 chance The Astrologist by half a length - the third and fourth home started 25-1 and 17-1 - to hand her often underrated sire Per Incanto his fifth individual Group 1 winner.

The Mike Moroney-trained Roch ‘N’ Horse was the headline act of a brilliant day for horses bred across the Tasman, with New Zealand-breds taking out three other stakes races in Australia and those black-type contests were all landed by progeny of the late stallion Tavistock, once again highlighting the indelible void left in the industry by his untimely death in 2018.

The son of Montjeu was handed his 35th individual stakes winner courtesy of Ruthless Dame’s victory in the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes at Flemington, while another of his daughters, Flying Mascot, added a third stakes win to her CV in the Matron Stakes at Flemington, while his son Stockman was victorious in the Sky Line Stakes at Rosehill.

Bred and raced by Little Avondale Stud, who stand the mare’s sire Per Incanto in New Zealand, Roch ‘N’ Horse went into Saturday's contest with four victories to her name, including in the Listed Power Turf Sprint, while she was most recently seen finishing runner-up in the Telegraph Stakes on January 15, beaten narrowly by Levante, who finished fourth here.

Sent off the complete outsider in the 17-runner field, Roch ‘N’ Horse powered home to defeat The Astrologist, while Group 1-winning mare September Run - who had finished tenth in last year’s edition of the Group 1 - was another nose away in third.

In winning for the first time at the top level, Roch 'N' Horse also provided jockey Patrick Moloney with his first Group 1 winner.

He told Racing.com: “It’s just massive. I can’t thank everyone enough and the horse today, she was just in the zone.

“She waltzed out of the yard [and] had a strut to her. She was down at the barriers quiet as a lamb and for a horse that I trialled during the week, she was pretty hot. But today she was so calm and conserved her energy.

'She just went bang for me'

“Things couldn’t have worked out any better. I said to Mike early that I thought we’d go down to the fence and follow the fence. It is as good as anywhere and we got a beautiful cart on the back of September Run and I peeled her to the outside early enough and she just went bang for me.

“The owner, Catriona, bred this horse and said, ‘I wouldn’t have travelled for 48 hours and struggled to get here if I didn’t think it was a chance'. That just filled me with confidence.”

While Catriona Williams of Little Avondale Stud was on hand at Flemington to welcome back her star, husband Sam watched the race from a pub in Turangi as the Masterton breeder ventured home from the six-day Karaka Sales.

“Last week with Belluci Babe winning a Group 3 in Sydney was unbelievable, but winning a Group 1 in Australia over 1,200 metres – you’ve got to be kidding me,” said Sam Williams.

“We were halfway home from Karaka and stopped at the pub in Turangi to watch the race. The whole pub knew we were there. At the 300m mark when she made her move, we were screaming.

“We shouted the bar down and we were getting out of there before they wouldn’t let us out of the town.

“One bloke asked us if we’d like to buy a house there, so we thought we should be on our way.”

Roch ‘N’ Horse was retained by Little Avondale after failing to make her NZ$40,000 (£21,000/€25,000) reserve during Book 2 of the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale in 2018 and she is the only winner out of the unraced Cecconi mare Rochfort, who is herself a half-sister to Group 3 scorer Weissmuller and Listed winner Travolta.

One of 23 stakes winners by Per Incanto, Roch ‘N’ Horse joins Shadows Cast, Dal Cielo, Santa Monica and Bonham as the stallion's other top-flight scorers.

Subscribe to make sure you never miss updates from Australia, New Zealand and beyond and to have ANZ Bloodstock delivered to your inbox every day