Rock Sand was a small brown horse bred by his owner Sir James Miller at his Hamilton Stud in Newmarket.

Rock Sand was a notably bad mover in his slower paces: those unfamiliar with his gait frequently assumed that he was lame when he trotted or cantered to the start before his races.

Rock Sand was ridden by Danny Maher (right) and started favourite at 4/6 in front of a crowd which included the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales.

[15] Rock Sand followed up his Derby win with a run at Royal Ascot where he took the St. James's Palace Stakes over one mile from three "moderate" opponents at odds of 1/10.

Rock Sand disputed the lead with Oriole in the early stages but was challenged and overtaken by Ard Patrick before the turn into the straight.

[26] On his four-year-old debut, Rock Sand ran against Sceptre again in June over the Derby course and distance in the Coronation Cup, a race which also featured the first meeting between Rock Sand and his contemporary Zinfandel, a colt whose engagements in the previous year's classics had been rendered void by the death of his owner Colonel Harry McCalmont.

He was then an easy, odds-on winner of the £10,000 Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket on 30 June from Saltpetre (who won the Goodwood Cup on his next start) and William Rufus.

Rock Sand ended his racing career in the £10,000 Jockey Club Stakes on 29 September in which he defeated Henry the First and William Rufus, with the Derby winner St. Amant unplaced.

[31] Before the race his action looked even worse than usual as he hobbled to the start "like a cripple",[4] but won impressively and was given an enthusiastic reception by the Newmarket crowd which greeted the joint-favourite's success with "deafening cheers".

[32] Rock Sand's winning prize money of £19,719 made him the highest earner of the British season ahead of the filly Pretty Polly.

[34] Despite winning more top class races than most Derby winners, Rock Sand was never rated very highly, although it was acknowledged that he was "unmistakably... a high-class racehorse".

[37] In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Rock Sand an "average" Derby winner.

[39] In Kentucky, he sired: The Hart–Agnew anti-betting legislation implemented by the Republican controlled New York Legislature under Governor Charles Evans Hughes[40] eventually led to the complete shutdown of horse racing in New York state and forced Belmont to sell Rock Sand to a syndicate who shipped him to a stud farm France in 1912.