C Z Rocket

C Z Rocket began his career with plenty of promise, winning three straight races to begin his career at Saratoga Race Course, Keeneland, and Churchill Downs. In his final start as a 3-year-old in 2017, he was unplaced in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes in his first try against stakes competition.

The bay gelding won the Kelly’s Landing Stakes at Churchill in his second start in 2018 to secure his first stakes victory and then finished fourth in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes and Grade 3 Ack Ack Stakes. The two losses kicked off an 11-race winless stretch that lasted into 2020, before he turned things around after being claimed by trainer Peter Miller on behalf of Tom Kegale.

C Z Rocket won a $50,00 claiming race at Churchill before a 4 ¾-length romp in an allowance/optional claiming race June 21 at the Louisville track.

After another allowance win at Keeneland in July, Miller tested C Z Rocket back against elite sprinters in the Grade 1 Pat O’Brien Stakes and he outfinished Flagstaff and Law Abiden Citizen to earn an expenses-paid berth in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Miller kept C Z  Rocket in California after his Grade 1 win in the Pat O’Brien, and on Sept. 27 the gelding won his second consecutive top-level race, taking the Santa Anita Sprint Championship by a head over Flagstaff. He earned another automatic Breeders’ Cup berth with the victory, this time in the Sprint.

C Z Rocket’s five-race winning streak came to a halt in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, but he certainly held his own against elite competition in a runner-up finish Nov. 7 at Keeneland behind runaway winner Whitmore.

In his 2021 debut, C Z Rocket turned the tables on Whitmore, coming from last to win the Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Mar. 13. He covered the six furlongs in an impressive 1:09.04, while pushing his earnings past the $1 million mark. He followed that race up with a strong victory in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn on Apr. 10, once again defeating Whitmore.

Following those back-to-back wins to start 2021, C Z Rocket made five more starts without a win, but he did hit the board in four graded stakes. He closed out the year with a seventh-place finish in the Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Back for an 8-year-old campaign in 2022, C Z Rocket won his second start of the year, an allowance optional claiming race at Del Mar in July. Two starts later, he lost a razor-thin photo finish to Howbeit in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, his third consecutive start in that race.

The close call effort in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship was enough to convince trainer Peter Miller to take another shot in the Grade 1 $2 million Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint in 2022. Miller's belief in veteran C Z Rocket was rewarded with a solid second-place finish in the Breeders' Cup, beaten just 1 1/4 lengths by Elite Power. despite going off at odds of 31-1.