Empire Stallions is pleased to announce that Triple World Champion
PET ROCK 2,1:52.3; 3,
1:50; 4,
1:47 ($1,984,2014) will be joining our stallion roster and standing in Victoria for the upcoming 2015/16 harness racing breeding season.
A fierce competitor with extraordinary race credentials,
PET ROCK started a total of 45 times with 16 wins and 18 placings while amassing over $1.9 million in earnings.PET ROCK has the distinction of being the fastest horse in history of any age winning on a half mile track in a world record 1:48.1. He is also the current World Champion and fastest 4YO ever on a five-eighths mile track winning in 1:47.2 at Scioto Downs.
PET ROCK was destined for greatness the moment he first stepped foot onto a racetrack. In his first 2YO trial at Scioto Downs in Ohio, PET ROCK caught the eye of trainer
Virgil Morgan Jr when he won solidly in
1:58. Morgan discovered that the colt was for sale and after his second qualifying win, this time at The Meadowlands in 1:55.3, PET ROCK was purchased by Frank & Joe Bellino of New York with Morgan accepting training duties.
PET ROCK hit the board in all of his 5 starts at 2 with 2 wins and 3 seconds while winning a New Jersey Sire Stakes at The Meadowlands in 1:52.3 and the Hoosier Stake at Indianapolis. His three second place finishes were by a total of less than three-quarters of a length.
At 3,
PET ROCK banked $934,500 with 8 wins including the $306,000 Art Rooney Memorial Final in a Stakes & Track Record over Yonkers half-mile oval in
1:51. He also won the $215,000 Windy City Pace Final at Maywood Park in 1:51.4, the $50,000 Confederation Cup elimination and placed in the $600,000 Meadowlands Pace Final, the $500,000 Battle of the Brandywine Final, the $415,000 Messenger Stakes Final and the $312,000 Cane Pace Final.
PET ROCK’s four-year-old season would become one for the record books with 6 wins (5 of these between
1:47 and 1:48.2) for a further $972,820 in earnings while lowering his lifetime mark to
1:47 neat at The Meadowlands.
In early September 2013,
PET ROCK took his first World Champion title in the $125,000 Jim Ewart Memorial at Scioto Downs to become the fastest 4YO ever on a 5/8ths mile track winning in a sizzling 1:47.2.
Just 12 days after his record setting performance at Scioto Downs,
PET ROCK became the fastest pacer of any age or sex on a half-mile track with his impressive 1:48.1 victory in the Winbak Pace at Delaware, Ohio over A Rocknroll Dance.
PET ROCK’s gutsy performance in the $184,000 Roll With Joe Final at Tioga Downs saw him set yet another 5/8ths track record in 1:48.1 while defeating a stellar field of seasoned performers including Foiled Again, A Rocknroll Dance, Sweet Lou and Betterthancheddar.
This World Champion season was punctuated with his win in the prestigious $471,000 William Haughton Memorial at The Meadowlands starting from post nine. PET ROCKlowered his lifetime mark to 1:47 (with a last quarter of :26.3) while establishing a new stakes record and once again dominated a star-studded field in Bolt The Duer, Sweet Lou, Golden Receiver and Foiled Again. He also scored wins in the $200,000 American National Stake in a great stretch duel over Foiled Again in 1:48.2 and the $223,500 Hoosier Park Pacing Derby in 1:50.1.