KEITEL DESTROYS HIS RIVALS IN THE ROCKHAMPTON CUP

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 11, 2026

It was clearly a case of the best horse winning the race when the David Vandyke trained Keitel, the $4.20 second favourite, turned in an unstoppable performance to take out the $150 000 Rockhampton Cup at Callaghan Park on Saturday.

The six-year-old son of Hellbent carried between 1.5kg and 7 kg more than all of his opposition … he jumped from the worst of the draw (barrier twelve out of twelve) … he gave every one of his rivals a start, racing in last place just under ten lengths off the lead for the first 1000m, all the way until the home turn … yet, in spite of all of that, when Keitel was angled out into clear running by Ryan Wiggins coming through the 400m, the grey took just a moment to wind up before unleashing over the final 250m, surging into the lead with 180m left to run carrying a momentum that no other runner could match.

The race was already won right there and then.

The $4.80 third favourite, the John Dann trained Quothquan, ran on best of the rest after also coming from off the pace from a wide draw, but, once Keitel had set sail for home, the best Quothquan was going to finish was in second place and he did that in a comfortable, if a little bit lonely fashion, finishing 1.85 lengths behind Keitel and 1.15 lengths ahead of the third placed, Peter and Will Hulbert trained Zoology ($15).

Keitel had put the writing on the wall in his last start in which he finished third behind Sun God and War Eternal (who both have strong form-lines) in the Tatts Mile at Eagle Farm, and his devastating burst of acceleration here was out of the top drawer as it carried the Vandyke trained runner to his eighth career victory in twenty-five starts.

One race earlier John Dann had sent out Illegal Justice to win the Capricorn Guineas, so was denied a race-to-race, big race double when Quothquan bumped into one better in the Rockhampton Cup.

The Cup favourite, the locally trained Pepperdine, finished in sixth spot, 3.44 lengths behind the winner.