The Rocket is back on track and ready to go seaside
Matt Markham - Raceform • November 1st, 2025 8:00 AM • 3 min read
Away from the spotlight in the lead-up to this year’s IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup, the young horseman has been working hard trying to get his star pacer Rakero Rocket back on top of his game. And, while there have been glimpses of his best in the past few months, only now does Bamford feel like he’s really starting to get things sorted.
“His bloods have been off and he’s just not been his usual self a lot of the time,” Bamford told RaceForm.
“And that probably explains some of his performances, but in the last couple of weeks they’ve just started to turn the corner and been the best that they’ve been for quite a while.
“So we’re getting there. The only problem is the Cup is coming up pretty fast.”
A Methven Cup winner in the slop two starts back, Rakero Rocket was okay without being brilliant in Republican Party’s Canterbury Classic. But he’ll head to Kaikoura on Monday on the front foot for a change.
“The Monday after the Canterbury Classic was when his blood work really started improving and you could see it in him at home too, his work stepped up a notch and his general demeanour around the stable too, so he’s on the right track.”
With eight days splitting Kaikoura’s $100,000 feature and the big dance on the second Tuesday in November, Bamford knows he’s cutting it fine. But he is just taking solace in the fact there’s a good body of groundwork behind them to build off.
“He’s fit and ready to go, and hopefully now he can really step it up and show them what he’s capable of.”
Twelve months ago at Kaikoura, a raw and untapped Rakero Rocket stepped out in the Aged Sales Series race, blowing the start, cleaning up favourite Sooner The Bettor in the process and then staging a massive recovery to finish third behind Wish Me Luck.
“I don’t think Sooner The Bettor would like to draw next to us again this week, but we’re a whole lot better from the stand now anyway. He’s woken up to what it’s all about, and the addition of the shadow roll means he’s pretty sharp away from it.
“Gav (driver Gavin Smith) said after Methven that you just have to ask him to go when the tape pings now and he knows exactly what to do, so hopefully we can do that again on Monday.”
With Akuta and Merlin both headed seaside for the feature, the battle will be a good one, but Bamford is not backing down from thinking his pride and joy is a chance in the iconic race.
“With the Cup so close, we don’t want a real gut-buster kind of run, but I’d like to see him get away and get some nice cover and from there I think he’ll run a pretty big race.
“Given what I’ve seen at home in the past couple of weeks, I think he is capable of giving them a fright if things work out really well for us.”
Outside of the two big guns and Rakero Rocket, Monday’s race has plenty of importance for horses like American Me and Vessem, who are fighting to maintain their places inside the top 15 for the New Zealand Trotting Cup.
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