Rockavon

As a two-year-old in 1960, Rockavon ran eight times at minor racecourses in Scotland and Northern England winning three races including his last two. He won the Neilsland Nursery[6] and one other race at Hamilton Park, near Glasgow and a race at the since closed Stockton-on-Tees Racecourse in Yorkshire. In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the season's best juveniles, Rockavon did not receive a rating, suggesting that he was at least thirty pounds below the best horses of his generation.

The best two-year-olds seen in Britain in 1960 had either been fillies like Opaline and Sweet Solera, or sprinters like Floribunda, suggesting that the 1961 colts' classics might be rather sub-standard.[7] Rockavon did little to establish himself as a contender for major honours on his seasonal debut, when he finished fourth in a handicap race at Newcastle. In the 2000 Guineas over Newmarket's Rowley Mile course on 26 April he started at odds of 66/1 in a field of twenty-two runners, with Pinturischio, who had won the Wood Ditton Stakes for unraced horses at the previous Newmarket meeting, being made the 7/4 favourite. George Boyd had planned to fly to Newmarket from Scotland but was delayed by fog at Edinburgh Airport and the colt was prepared at the course by Boyd's nephew, Tommy Craig, who had travelled down in Rockavon's horse-box.[8] Ridden by Norman Stirk, Rockavon was always well positioned, took the lead a furlong from the finish, and won by two lengths from Prince Tudor and Irish-trained Time Greine, with Pinturischio in fourth.[9] The subsequent Epsom Derby winner Psidium finished eighteenth. The colt's success, the first for a Scottish-trained horse in a British classic,[4] was greeted enthusiastically in Scotland where Rockavon was described in the press as having "humbled the pride of England, Ireland and France".[3] His owner, who had backed the horse at 100/1, said that while the win was unexpected, he had always hoped that the colt would be a good horse, having picked him out at the sales on his own initiative.[10]

Rockavon reappeared in the Heddon Stakes over nine furlongs at Newcastle on 22 June and won from a single opponent, a four-year-old named Julia's Hamlet.[11] He was then tried over one and a half miles in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July and finished third of the four runners behind Right Royal and St. Paddy.[12] Rockavon returned to Scotland in September and finished unplaced in the Doonside Cup at Ayr. On his final appearance he was part of an international field for the Champion Stakes at Newmarket in October. He was among the leaders until two furlongs from the finish, but then faded to finish unplaced behind the French-trained Bobar.[13]