Roos Racing Rocket, a son of Dawn Approach
Race entries
A classic winner - like Poetic Flare?
Charlie reports that he galloped out of the Stalls on the grass on Thursday. He said he was a bit green but moved well and is going in the right direction. He said that if he gets enough rain this week, he may do the same again later this week, or if the gallops are too quick, he'll do the same again the week after Royal Ascot.
Watch a video of him during our owners' morning below:
It’s particularly difficult to get your hands on a son or daughter of Dawn Approach; they rarely come up for sale at the premier yearling sales, if at all.
Not only was Dawn Approach the Champion 2yo of his generation in winning The Gp1 National Stakes at The Curragh & The Gp1 Dewhurst along the way, he very much trained on to win the 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes as a 3yo. His progeny have been much sought after, and he’s already produced multiple Group and Grade 1 winners at home and abroad. We’ve been looking for a final piece of the Charlie Johnston yearling jigsaw, a third addition, given our huge success together with the exploits, this year, of Epsom Derby runner-up LAZY GRIFF, in addition to the recent likes of Dear My Friend and Marie’s Diamond for ourselves and the Middleham Stable. On viewing the stunning son of the great Dawn Approach, we immediately fell in love. This colt’s laurels do not rest on his sire alone, for his mare has already produced horses RPR rated 107 & 102 and Timeform rated 110 & 102 - both, it’s fair to say, by what would be widely regarded as “lesser stallions” than the mighty Dawn Approach himself.
A video of him parading during our owners morning:
He’s a fabulous stamp of a horse with fantastic size; however, he moves like a dream, in his slower paces at least, usually a precursor to moving similarly in quicker gaits too. His temperament seemed bombproof throughout the whole sale process, in the boxes where we first saw him, the pre-parade ring, and the sales arena itself.
We knew he was a perfect fit for Charlie and Mark Johnston, and so, as we always do, we checked whether they would be bidding on the horse, so that we wouldn’t send up bidding against each other in the ring. On checking, Charlie said, “Yes, I loved him, I gave him a special star in my notes.”
We agreed, therefore, not to oppose each other but to combine our efforts to secure this colt. We had to fight off plenty of bidders, some household names and renowned “good judges” in the thoroughbred world, so you can imagine our delight in securing this stunning colt’s services for 95,000gns - almost £100,000 to the penny.
He’s unusually bred, almost unfashionably bred by Jim Bolger, given New Approach features on both sides of the pedigree, something that certainly was not off-putting for either ourselves, the Johnstons, or the plethora of would-be suitors this colt had in his time through the ring. Ironically, after we’d bought him, a delighted Mark Johnston regaled, “I said to Charlie as he was swinging the ring, there’s plenty of New Approach about this colt. It was only moments later,"Mark continued: “on checking this colt’s pedigree, quite how much New Approach there was about him!”
Who are we to argue with the genius that is Jim Bolger, the breeder not only of our stunning chestnut, but also the English 2000 Guineas Winner Poetic Flare.
With Charlie Johnston at the helm, we could envisage a Maytime debut in 2026 over 6f, but it is fair to say that his optimum conditions are more likely to be approaching 7f as a 2yo through to potentially 1m to 1m4f through his 3yo career.
He's as exciting an addition to our 2026 2yo ranks as you could wish for.
His work has been extremely good, he really enjoys his daily exercise and is just very straightforward. He has now moved to Charlie's, see the video of him moving below: