Here To Shock’s elite-level aims

[Wandering Eyes]

After Here To Shock (NZ) (Shocking) returned his best season as a racehorse as a seven-year-old gelding, owner and syndicate manager Rob Slade is banking on him continuing that upward trajectory.

“He’s getting better with age. He’s very lightly raced for a seven-year-old gelding as he has had only 37 starts and most horses his age would be in the 55-to-60-starts bracket,” Slade said of Here To Shock, who has won 13 races and $2.8 million in prizemoney.

Here To Shock is back in work and being aimed first-up at the Group 2 P.B. Lawrence Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 17.

“That’s a suitable race for him. He loves 1400m at Caulfield, where he has two wins, including the Group 3 Victoria Handicap and two seconds,” Slade said.

In the 2024-25 racing season, Here To Shock had seven starts for four wins and two seconds and he secured his first G1 win when he took out the BCD Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa in February.

In the lead-up to that win, Here To Shock won the inaugural The Supernova at Pakenham over 1400m.

After New Zealand, his trainers Ben, JD and Will Hayes brought Here To Shock back to Australia to finish second in the G1 Canterbury Stakes over 1300m at Randwick behind Royal Patronage.

That was also a significant performance as it was the first time he had been placed at the highest level in Australia.

“We’ve never had a real issue with him. He’s very sound, so we think he’s a horse that still races effectively when he’s eight and nine years old,” he said, with the recent results in G1 races convincing connections that’s the level of race they will aim him at during spring.

Meanwhile the ownership group has also voted to move rising five-year-old mare Roll On High to Lindsay Park from Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman’s stables.

“They wanted to try Roll On High in a new environment. They had nothing against Moody, but just wanted to change it up,” he said.

Roll On High has been spelling since she finished sixth in the G1 Robert Sangster Stakes, where she didn’t have a lot of galloping room, and she will resume work this week with the plan to run her at Flemington at their Makybe Diva Stakes meeting on September 13.

Here To Shock was purchased by Rob Slade from the Cambridge Stud draft at the 2019 Karaka Yearling Sale (Book 1).

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