He's the lowest-rated horse to win successive races for 26 years - and that run could continue next week

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The 25-rated Rockafeller Skank has been making all the right moves recently with back-to-back wins at Yarmouth last week making him the lowest-rated horse to complete such a sequence since 2000. 

Rockafeller Skank, named after a hit track by Fatboy Slim, is not done yet, with trainer Richard Spencer entering him at Wolverhampton and Lingfield next week.

The three-year-old did not beat a single rival in his three starts as a juvenile last year, when he was beaten a total of 91 lengths, but has already accounted for 15 in his two wins in the space of 24 hours in Norfolk.

Rockafeller Skank began his transformation in a mile contest on Wednesday in which he was backed from 10-1 into 5-2 in the morning only to drift back to 6-1 at the off before beating Heer’s Sadie under George Wood.

After making the short trip back to Sefton Lodge Stables in Newmarket, the Phil Cunningham-owned gelding trotted up fine the following morning before being sent back up the A11 to contest a 1m2f classified contest.

Phil Cunningham of Rebel Racing with Richard Spencer Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Sent off a more conservative 8-13 favourite, Rockafeller Skank made even shorter work of his six rivals, despite carrying a 6lb penalty.   

Spencer said: “Rockafeller Skank is easily the lowest-rated horse I’ve trained. He was a big baby last year and a gelding operation over the winter has helped him. He’s had a long time since his last run as a two-year-old and a rating of 25 was probably a little bit insulting but we played the cards we were dealt and hopefully he can continue to progress.”

He said of the well-orchestrated plan: “The lowest-rated race at the moment is a 0-50 classified or we could have run him in a seller or a claimer but I had the race at Yarmouth on Wednesday pencilled in for the past three months after the conditions came out. It then just happened there was another one the next day.”

The three-year-old is entered for a race on the all-weather on Tuesday, when he will have a 12lb penalty.

The trainer added on Saturday: "He lost 1kg for his first win and has lost a couple more for his second but he’ll have put that back on by this afternoon as he’s eating everything. He trotted up well this morning and I would say he’ll be heavier come Tuesday than he was before his first Yarmouth race.

"There are two more races next week for Rockafeller Skank at Wolverhampton on Tuesday and Lingfield on Thursday so hopefully he can run in four 0-50 classifieds in eight days. He was better in his second win than he was in his first but he has learned so much from his win the day before. We’ll drop back to a mile at Wolverhampton and then go back up to a mile and a quarter at Lingfield."

The lowest-rated horse ever to win a race, according to Racing Post records, is the 16-rated Quakeress, who won a seller at Wolverhampton in 2000, while the 24-rated Notation One landed back-to-back races at Hamilton and Beverley in the same year.

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