9 Jan. As we announced some time ago, Rocky is now well & truly retired & enjoying the life of riley, he is still with Tom & Irene at the present but we expect to bring him back to Sussex soon in order to find a suitable home for him, this should be in a couple of weeks time.
29 Oct. Rocky has had two sprint trials round Sittingbourne recently & has a third tomorrow, following treatment for a tendon injury which has seen him resting for a number of weeks again. Fingers crossed he can grade in once again.
22 Aug. Saw Tom & Irene at Hove last night, who told us Rocky is smitten with his new girlfriend!! He has stopped his visits to the beach as it has been decided he doesn’t like the feel of the water (big baby), good new is he is starting to have gallops again this week so we will see how he progresses & keep you posted. P.S. we are going to visit him on Saturday.
2 July. Rocky has been off for some time now owing to all the upheaval with building works & delay in Tom taking over, but has been working out recently & we are hopeful to see his return soon at Sittingbourne.
12 June Rocky had been due to trial last week at Sittingbourne but Eileen (Pett), took him with a few others on to the beach the day previous for a run around & she thought he seemed a little lame, so decided not to let him trial until checked out by her vet. He found he had a muscle tear in his shoulder so will rest for a couple of weeks.
22 May Report from kennel is very good, Rocky had a gallop yesterday & is fine, so should be trialling next week at Sittingbourne, sorry we haven’t been able to go to see him for a while, but we will be there soon!!
9 May Good news this week! Rocky has now been to see Ron Mills who has treated him for sore hamstrings & he should hopefully start to do some gallops at the kennel. Probably be some time getting fit as by all accounts he’s eaten too many pies over the last few weeks!!
2 May Haven’t been able to visit Rocky for weeks now due to foot & mouth, so apologies for not updating.
I am pleased to report that rocky has not had to move from his old kennels, because his new trainers, Tom & Irene Pett have moved into them!
He has had a visit to Ron Mills this weekend and will hopefully have some gallops at the kennel very soon before he trials back in at Sittingbourne, probably in next couple of weeks.
19 Mar Sadly we learnt today that Rocky’s present trainer, Mark West is no longer going to train at Sittingbourne, in his words he has found that training is no longer financially viable for him & he is therefore going to pursue outside interests for the time being.
However Mark does not rule out a return to the sport in the future, we all wish him well.
17 Feb Card was carried over as promised and Rocky had his race, unfortunately he didn’t run very well at all. Only managed fifth, so we are convinced now he hurt himself in his last race so will be rested for a while.
15 Feb The meeting at Sittingbourne had to be abandoned tonight due to fog.
After a meeting with the trainers it was decided to allow tonights card to be carried over to Sat night, so hopefully Rocky should get a run then.
10 Feb Rocky was graded in quite a tough race today, A3 with some good dogs, one of them had been third to Broadland Tom before going into season in Dec.
He came out well enough but the 3 dog had the run on them all, good trapper, so we thought Rocky would be well beaten until we saw him kick in up the back straight at which point we knew he should win.
He did indeed go in front by half a length, but coming out of the last bend his head seemed to go up and he lolloped home. Beaten half a length into Fourth place.
Although initial reports suggest he has nothing wrong with him, we will have to wait and see what Mark his trainer has to say after he checks him out tomorrow, otherwise there are no excuses for losing a race he could easily have won!!!
3 Feb Rocky was dropped to A4 for a race today at Sittingbourne, came out well enough to slip into second place on the first bend, and bided his time until he was able to nip in on the inside of the front runner and completed the race in front to win by half a length, good lad “rocky”!! Mark still says he had cramp at the end.
24 Jan Rocky ran tonight in A3, didn’t really come out quick enough to make any impact on the race, and got himself into a little bit of trouble on first bend because of this. Finished fourth though so not too bad, considering he cramped again at the end. Hopefully mark will be looking for reasons for this for the future.
18 Jan Meeting at Sittingbourne, was abandoned right at very last minute. So we, along with everybody else had a wasted trip!
13 Jan Rocky had a very good run last night, got to second place briefly, it was quite a classy race he was in so we are pleased with the result, Mark (trainer) said he was a little overweight as well so considering he hasn’t run since Boxing Day he did very well. Pleased to report there was no sign of any cramp either.
26 Dec Privileged to run on Boxing Day at Sittingbourne, only finished 5th, unfortunately we were unable to go. Been told Rocky cramped badly in the race yesterday, think it is too cold for them at the moment!
