Rockstar Icon made his fourth appearance of the season this weekend, finishing ninth of eleven on Newmarket's Rowley Mile on Saturday afternoon.

It was the second time that our gelding had run over this track and trip, having finished fifth off 19 runners there in May on his first start of the season. Confidence was high going into the race off the back of that performance, as well as his attitude and performance at home in recent weeks. 

Rockstar Icon started Saturday's race well, breaking from the stalls in fine fashion and taking up his position in behind a couple of horses, to avoid a clear run into the headwind that was blowing towards the field running down the Rowley Mile.

He tracked the leading horses for much of the race, before jockey Hector Crouch hit a gap and travelled strongly into the leading cluster, looking like he would be contesting at the finish. However, after running into the famous dip, our Paul and Oliver Cole-trained three-year-old slowed down rather quickly and faded towards the backend of the field, unable to keep up with leading group. 

After the race, Hector Crouch explained that he thought that Rockstar Icon didn't cope with the good-to-firm ground on the day, and that it was clear that he'd prefer it to be good going as opposed to any faster. 

WATCH: Hector Crouch reviews Rockstar Icon's race at Newmarket

Oliver Cole provided this update following the race: 

"We went into Rockstar Icon’s Newmarket race hoping for a big run, and halfway through the race he was travelling very nicely, so much so that we thought he was sure to be involved at the finish, a view shared by jockey Hector Crouch. Unfortunately his effort petered out very quickly, something Hector initially put down to the good to firm ground being too quick for the horse to really let himself go on.

However, standing with the horse after the race, it was apparent his breathing wasn’t quite right. You’d expect a horse to have a good blow after a race, and while he was, you could also hear some more irregular sounds, a sign that perhaps he has an issue with his wind.

He’s not shown any indication of this previously, but it would explain a couple of below par runs, so we’ll get him scoped this week, and see if that shows up any abnormalities. Such procedures are common place, as is any treatment to remedy it, so once the vet has done his work, we can share the results and plan next steps."

Stay tuned for a further update on Rockstar Icon, and the next potential target for our gelding.