rock n roll heaven
Bred by Charles “Cotton” Nash, Julie Nash, Francene Nash and Steve Stewart, 2010 Horse of the Year and world champion pacer Rock N Roll Heaven was foaled on April 29, 2007 in Paris, Kentucky. The yearling was purchased at the Lexington Selected Sale in October 2008 for $57,000 by Roy O’Hagan, who then sold the colt to current owner Frank J. Bellino of Bronxville, New York the following June. Rock N Roll Heaven was trained by Bruce Saunders and his primary driver was Dan Dube.
At the time of his retirement from racing, Rock N Roll Heaven was the tenth-leading single-season moneywinning Standardbred of all time, recording 20 wins out of 30 career starts.
Rock N Roll Heaven’s 2009 two-year-old season was highlighted by victories in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final and a division of the Bluegrass. At Harrah’s Chester in September, he set the world record for two-year-olds on a five-eighths mile track (1:50.3). The freshman finished with an impressive 9-4-4-1 record and $592,626 in earnings.
In 2010, three-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven won sixteen of twenty-one starts, earning $2,156,192, and was that year’s leading moneywinning Standardbred. Victories included the Breeders Crown, Little Brown Jug, Tattersalls Pace, Battle of the Brandywine, Messenger Stakes, Berry’s Creek Final, Matron Stakes, Bluegrass Stakes and the New Jersey Sire Stakes Final. In winning the Little Brown Jug in record time (1:49.2h), Rock N Roll Heaven became the first horse to pace two sub-1:50 miles on the same day, while setting the world record for pacing on a half-mile track in a two-heat race, and the record for three-year-old pacers on the half-mile. In 2010 he paced a record 11 sub-1:50 miles, with victories in 1:49.2 or faster on half-mile, five-eighths, seven-eighths and mile tracks. Rock N Roll Heaven was voted 2010 Dan Patch Horse of the Year, Dan Patch Pacer of the Year, and Dan Patch and O’Brien Three-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year, and joined the ranks of the top ten single-season moneywinning Standardbreds of all time.
Rock N Roll Heaven stands at Winbak Farm in Walden, New York. As a stallion with three crops racing, he has sired the winners of $12,411,203 with one millionaire.
As 2010 Horse of the Year, Rock N Roll Heaven became the inaugural recipient of the Harness Racing Museum’s Delvin & Mary Lib Miller Horse of the Year Perpetual Trophy. The members of the Museum elected Rock N Roll Heaven to harness racing’s Hall of Fame in December 2016.