A stellar field assembled for the Group 1 Darley Champions Sprint (1200m) on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Rivals included her Kiwi sparring partner Levante, Group 1 winners Masked Crusader, Bella Nipotina and Rothfire, subsequent Group 1 winners Giga Kick and Paulele, and the then highest-rated sprinter in the world, Nature Strip.
She was again underrated in the race, sent out around 20-1. With jockey Jamie Mott in the saddle, she chased down a gallant Nature Strip who was eyeing a third win the race and a tenth Group 1.
Settling mid-field, she burst through the middle of the pack at the clocktower and grabbed Nature Strip at the 50-metre mark. It would be Mott’s second Group 1 after his win on another Kiwi galloper, Callsign Mav, in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m).
Roch ‘N’ Horse would race three more times, with her best finish a third in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) in March before retiring a winner of five races and earnings in excess of $3 million.
Her record at Flemington stands at two Group 1 wins and two Group 2 seconds from five starts up the straight track and she will be remembered as the small but mighty mare who upstaged the fancied horses on more than one occasion.