Rockribbed again showed his speed and stamina on Saturday, 10 May when the son of Irish stallion Night Of Thunder led all the way to win the Listed Australian Turf Club Trophy 1,200m on the Gold Coast – becoming his sire’s fourth feature-race winner in just the past week.
Too speedy in restricted grade at Eagle Farm over 1,300m on 26 April, Rockribbed jumped brilliantly and led clearly for apprentice Emily Lang before kicking clear at the top of the home straight.
Rockribbed notched his first Stakes-race victory by beating Need Some Luck and The Inflictor by 1.5 lengths in a fast 1 minute 10.39 seconds on a track rated heavy.
The Tony Gollan-trained sprinter, out of Stakes-placed broodmare Seattle Lass, took his record to nine wins and eight placings from 26 starts for prize-money earnings of $490,100.
The seven-year-old complemented Night Of Thunder’s winners Desert Flower (out of Promising Run) in the G1 One Thousand Guineas 1,600m Newmarket, Sunly (Suffused) in the Listed Prix de la Seine over 2,200m at Longchamp, and Dynamic Pricing (Shemda) from the Gr3 Beauty Stakes over 1,700m at Aqueduct.
Rockribbed was offered by Flinders Park Stud at the 2019 Inglis Gold Yearling Sale and bought by Polaris Bloodstock for $14,000.
The gelding was then resold online through Inglis in February, 2023 to now part-owner Elliott O’Shea for $27,500.
Night Of Thunder was a dual G1 winner during an 11-start career which yielded four wins and four placings.
Since retiring to stud, the stallion has sired 381 winners of 1,082 races worldwide – including 64 Stakes winners of 111 Black-Type events.
Night Of Thunder stands at Darley’s Kildangan Stud in County Kildare, Ireland for a service fee of 150,000 euros.
Rockribbed found an extra gear to salute in the Australian Turf Club Trophy.
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) May 10, 2025
The win brings up a nice early double for trainer and jockey. @tonygollan @emilyyplang pic.twitter.com/9uEB8sIITt
