Bart Cummings caused an Australian Guineas upset on Saturday when Rock Classic gave the master trainer his first win in the Group 1 at Flemington.  The classic was also a triumph for Coolmore Stud sire Fastnet Rock and the Inglis Easter yearling sale.  

Rock Classic completed a G1 double for Fastnet Rock and Inglis graduates on Super Saturdays Part 1 and Part 2.  They just beat the downpour last Saturday week when Wanted won the G1 Newmarket.  

Wanted (3c Fastnet Rock – Fragmentation by Snippets) was an $800,000 buy at the 2008 Inglis Easter Sale from Highgrove Stud.  The Group 1 set him up for a successful career at Widden Stud.

Rock Classic (3g Fastnet Rock – Midnight Ballet by Peintre Celebre) will concentrate on a racing career and there’s no better man to guide him than the master trainer.  He cost $275,000 at the 2008 Inglis Easter Sale from Luskin Park Stud.

“Rock Classic has had a few problems but the blinkers corrected them,” Cummings said.  “He is just learning what to do and I think he has got a big future.”

The closest Cummings had come to winning the Australian Guineas was back in 1988 when Sky Chase was beaten a half-length by Flotilla.  The following month he transferred to Sydney and won the Rosehill Guineas.

Cummings will send Rock Classic back to Sydney but he hasn’t named any specific event at the autumn carnival.  The gelding has been nominated for the Doncaster Mile (1600m) and the AJC Derby (2400m) – just like star Queensland colt Shoot Out.

Rock Classic fronts a Fastnet Rock stampede this season.  The Coolmore shuttler also has a live Golden Slipper chance with Hinchinbrook who won the G3 Skyline Stakes at Randwick an hour before the Australian Guineas.

Fastnet Rock was an out-and-out sprinter but his South African based colt Curved Ball is a G2 winner up to 1800m while his Australian progeny have been successful up to 2040m.  Curved Ball was bred by Cummings in partnership with the late Bill Wyllie.

Rock Classic finished as well as anything in the Guineas and he’s out of an unraced mare by Arc de Triomphe winner Peintre Celebre.  Second dam Midnight Fever (Luskin Star) was a G1 winner of the 1987 Blue Diamond Stakes.

There’s no point second-guessing Bart.  He will target the right race for Rock Classic…whether the gelding stays a mile or stretches out to the classic distance.