Following his latest run at Windsor, Paul and Oliver Cole have made the decision to put Rockstar Icon away until the beginning of 2025 following a busy second half of the summer.

Rockstar Icon began his season back in May, after having almost five months off the track following his maiden victory at Lingfield on New Years' Eve of last year. His first appearance of this year was on 2000 Guineas Day at Newmarket, in a valuable handicap contest. He ran a fantastic race that day, dead heating for fifth place, three lengths behind the eventual winner, Key To Cotai, who went on to finish second in a Listed contest next time out. 

WATCH: Rockstar Icon impresses at Newmarket on seasonal debut

Following that race, the Whatcombe Stables team scoped Rockstar Icon prior to making his next entry, and unfortunately the results came back dirty. This meant he missed his scheduled return and the team drew the conclusion that he was suffering from equine hay fever, which isn't an uncommon occurrence during the summer months when pollen levels are high. 

His next task came 89 days after Newmarket, where he was sent to Glorious Goodwood for the Class 3 HKJC World Pool Handicap. It was a special day for the club, as we welcomed fifty Coral Racing Club members, on top of Rockstar Icon's ten Owners for the Day, to the Coral Racing Club's private rooftop terrace overlooking the final furlong of Goodwood Racecourse. Coral Racing Ambassador, Jim Crowley, was also booked onboard our gelding, making it a real family affair on the day. However, on the track, things didn't go Rockstar Icon's way, as he finished last of the 14 runners after being eased down by Jim Crowley in the closing stages when he was squeezed by other runners and became short of room.

WATCH: Highlights from Rockstar Icon's trip to Glorious Goodwood

We didn't have to wait long for Rockstar Icon's next appearance, as he was immediately entered in a race 12 days later over the seven furlong trip at Lingfield, the course and distance that he scored at on New Year's Eve. It was a much improved performance that day for the club's three-year-old, as he finished in fourth position, collecting £583 for his lucky Owners for the Day in the process. It wasn't plain sailing for Rockstar Icon that afternoon either, after he was a little slower away than usual, with jockey Sean Levey having to cajole him into a prominent position at the start of the race, which likely led to him falling away from the leaders in the final half furlong of the race.


Rockstar Icon's Owners for the Day at Lingfield

Next on the agenda was a return to the Rowley Mile at Newmarket in September. It was a warm contest that day and despite travelling really well for the majority of the race, he struggled with the pace in the final stages and faded out of contention. Following the race, Oliver Cole noticed that his breathing didn't sound perfect and made the decision to have his airways checked on the gallops to determine whether or not their were any irregularities, or if it was the lingering effects of the bout of hay fever he had suffered with earlier in the season.

WATCH: Rockstar Icon has his breathing assessed on the gallops

Thankfully, the results of those tests came back showing no underlying issues and the team at Whatcombe were free to find another race for Rockstar Icon, albeit with the decision to apply a tongue-tie to improve his breathing out on course. Again, we weren't waiting long to see him back in action, as the team identified a race at Windsor not long afterwards to send him to.

As it turned out, that race wasn't going to be an easy task for our Paul and Oliver Cole-trained gelding, as the Great British weather interfered with proceedings and turned the ground heavy on the day. It was very much going to be a learning experience for Rockstar Icon with that in mind, as he hadn't run on anything softer than 'Good' on the turf before, let alone bottomless, heavy ground. However, he took it in his stride and dealt with the conditions far better than plenty of his rivals, and eventually came home in fifth place after breaking well from the gates under Jack Mitchell and leading for the most part of the contest.

That brings us to today, with the latest update below from Whatcombe Stables outlining the next steps for Rockstar Icon.

"It’s been a slightly frustrating season with Rockstar Icon, things started well enough with a good fifth at Newmarket on 2000 Guineas Day, but after that we could never get a clear run with him, with his allergy problem in midsummer the biggest issue. We had a good day for the club when he ran at Glorious Goodwood, and while he ran OK at Lingfield after that, his two runs since, on very differing ground [good to firm at Newmarket and heavy at Windsor] were a little bit disappointing.

Therefore, we’ve made the decision to call it a day for the season, and he’s now been roughed off for the year. Horses don’t properly physically mature until they are five, so a good spell out of training and another winter of growing - he’s only three now - can only benefit him.

He’s a winner on the all-weather, so we won’t have to necessarily wait for the turf flat season to run him next year, which means we could look to get him started earlier than we did this year. He’s only had eight runs so far, so there could easily be more to come from him, he certainly remains a horse we like very much."

Stay tuned for the next update to find out how Rockstar Icon has been doing whilst enjoying his time off and see how much progress he has made.