Camino Rocoso for Pat
The late Pat Prendergast had a love affair with the classic 3-yearold staying test - the Derby.
Before his passing in 2015, Pat was part of the team that bred Saturday’s New Zealand Derby prospect Camino Rocoso.
Pat, his brother Maurice, Gary Glogoski, Tony Cookson and Laurie Skinner are old mates who joined forces to buy Camino Rocoso’s dam.
Two of the Aucklanders Glogoski and Cookson, experienced the highs and lows of the game 28 years ago with a horse called Centainette.
After four runs as a 2-year-old produced three wins and an unlucky second, the horse went for a spell but never saw a race track again after a disastrous paddock accident.
Years later a sharp eye noticed her full-sister named Our Centasea for sale.
She was in-foal to Bachelor Duke and despite her advancing years, the crew chipped-in to buy her for $4,500.
Until Camino Rocoso came along it didn’t appear the wisest investment, from five foals the partners bred one winner El Duque who scored four times from the stable of Stephen Marsh.
But thanks to Pat Prendergast, Camino Rocoso’s excited owners head to Ellerslie with a live chance of winning one of the biggest prizes on offer.
‘‘Pat was instrumental in choosing Shocking as a mating for Our Centasea,’’ Gary Glogoski said.
The hobby breeders had dreams of breeding a Derby contender and planned the mating with that in mind.
They had never had a horse with Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman at Cambridge, but identified them as the trainers who knew how to get a horse ready for a Derby.
‘‘Pat had the largest share in the horse at the time and Murray and Andrew were at the top of his list,’’ Glogoski said.
‘‘I told Murray and Andrew last year that the dream was the VRC Derby. But that came a bit soon and we didn’t make it.’’
The VRC Derby was a race Pat loved and he would travel to Melbourne to be on course for the occasion.
Camino Rocoso was Our Centasea’s last foal - she was into her twenties when she foaled him but she is still hail and hearty at 26 and not forgotten in her retirement..
‘‘We’ll be having a pre-derby party and we will all go and give her a pat,’’ Glogoski said. ‘‘We will have the party before the race in case we don’t have reason to have one after the race.’’
Imagine the celebration if Camino Rocoso can do the job in the hands of jockey Jason Waddell.
‘‘He meets all the requirements of a Derby horse,’’ Baker said - he knows, he’s trained six Derby winners and has five runners in Saturday’s race.
Camino Rocoso ($8.50) the most favoured with Mongolian Wolf ($16), Jon Snow ($21), Highlad ($33) and Mongolian Legend ($101) joining their stablemate.
On Thursday at Hastings the stable recorded their 14th stakes winner for the season - 12 in New Zealand and two in Australia when Bonneval won the Lowland Stakes.
Come Derby time at Ellerslie, thoughts will turn to the late Pat Prendergast.
‘‘It’s a special day for the team,’’ Glogoski said. ‘‘It’s in Pat’s memory as much as anything, it would be pretty emotional if Camino Rocoso did it.’’