“Roy’s the boy” raged commentator Simon Holt as this legendary French born co-holder of the most number of wins at Brighton romped home after achieving nine 1st places along with two 2nd and six 3rd places at the course also.
With 1,300 followers on Twitter, grey gelding Roy Rocket was universally loved and to support him an octogenarian named Iris would “as he went to post… produce from one of her many voluminous handbags a flask of gin and tonic and insist that trainer John Berry took a swig for luck. It sometimes worked.”
In May 2018, racing history was made when transgender jockey Victoria Smith – formerly known as Vince – rode Roy Rocket in a one-mile charity race as a woman at Warwick and became the first person to have competed in both male and female categories.
Of Roy Rocket, in July 2018, John Berry told the Racing Post: “He’s the most incredible horse… If I took him to a place he wasn’t used to going, we probably wouldn’t get there… He’d hate going somewhere different to where he normally goes and he hates not having a whole horse box to himself… He knows the yard so well, you could open up the French windows and bring him in the house… You can give him so much freedom without him being a danger… He loves carrots, his whole life’s a treat. The way the whole yard is run is pretty much around suiting him.”
A winner of the ROA Award for Flat Special Achievements also, Roy Rocket is eulogised by John Berry Racing as having “[given] some of the best days of racing of our lives.” This great favourite of punters everywhere will be forever missed.
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A refreshingly lovely story. RIP Roy Rocket.