Love Rocks the clock to set blistering time and join pantheon of sprinting greats at Doomben

LOVE Rocks entered rarefied territory when he stopped the clock in a blazing 1:17.43 on Saturday.

Love Rocks has joined a select group of sub 78-second winners at Doomben.

LOVE Rocks entered rarefied territory when he stopped the clock in a blazing 1:17.43 on Saturday.

Few horses go under the 78-second mark and digital analyst Vince Accardi has confirmed the time was spot on.

In the past 50 years, only four Doomben 10,000 winners (Apache Cat, Super Elegant, Falvelon and Chief De Beers) achieved the feat and of those, Falvelon (77.2) was the only one to go quicker than Love Rocks.

Of course, it's easier to clock quicker times on the harder summer tracks and to that end, the modern benchmarks are Takeover Target (77.25 under 60.5kg) and track record holder Natural Destiny (77.09), both of which clocked their times in the same race as Love Rocks.

In the past five years, the only other horse to break the 78 second mark was Lucky Leak (77.85), who won the 2011 Weetwood two starts later.

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PERHAPS spooked by General Exhibit's squeeze box, connections of Lucky Hussler were desperately worried about being bottled up on the fence in the Lough Neagh.

Michael Cahill told stewards he had been issued with strict instructions to stay one off the fence and close to the leaders.

Cahill desperately tried to follow that order, but Jackson Morris on Mishani Warrior had other ideas.

Morris trimmed up Renewed Vitality, which was then taken in onto Lucky Hussler, with Cahill shunted onto the fence. Morris was issued with a severe reprimand for the incident.

As it turned out, Lucky Hussler found clear galloping room, but like all other rivals, was left flat-footed by the winner.

It continued the miserable record of George Moore winners in the Lough Neagh, but Cahill believes he will be better ridden a touch more conservatively and expects him to be a force in the Magic Millions Cup.

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THE White Hope will run in a Benchmark 85 (1350m) at Doomben on Saturday in what trainer Matt Dunn hopes will be the perfect springboard to the Magic Millions Cup.

Saturday's prizemoney will be helpful in his quest to qualify for that race, as would a spike in his rating.

The White Hope ran second to Love Rocks when not fully wound up last month, so Dunn has a good barometer on how the grey will measure up.

As an aside, Hi Son became the sixth horse from that November 23 race to notch a subsequent win when he arrived on Saturday.