Rockavon was a dark-coated bay horse with no white markings[1] bred at the Biddlesden Park Stud on the border of Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire.
Ten months later Donworth sold the horse on at a profit when Rockavon was bought for 2,200 guineas[2] by Thomas Yuill, a farmer from Strathaven.
In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the season's best juveniles, Rockavon did not receive a rating, suggesting that he was at least thirty pounds below the best horses of his generation.
[8] Ridden by Norman Stirk, Rockavon was always well positioned, took the lead a furlong from the finish, and won by two lengths from Prince Tudor and Irish-trained Time Greine, with Pinturischio in fourth.
The colt's success, the first for a Scottish-trained horse in a British classic,[4] was greeted enthusiastically in Scotland where Rockavon was described in the press as having "humbled the pride of England, Ireland and France".
[10] Rockavon reappeared in the Heddon Stakes over nine furlongs at Newcastle on 22 June and won from a single opponent, a four-year-old named Julia's Hamlet.
[11] He was then tried over one and a half miles in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July and finished third of the four runners behind Right Royal and St.