Trainer Jamie Ness said Tuesday that popular East Coast runner Repo Rocks has been retired after six seasons. The 8-year-old gelding is currently stabled at Ness’s barn in Chesapeake City, Md., and will remain there in retirement. In the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup on Sept. 20 at Parx Racing, Repo Rocks finished seventh after suffering a setback early in the race. He was expected to miss time to recover from the injury, but after seeing the early stages of the process, Ness concluded that retirement was the best option. “It was a soft-tissue injury,” Ness said. “It was something that he could come back from, but he wasn’t going to be what he was. He was too good and we didn’t want him to be a claiming horse. He’s retired at my farm and he’s going to live out his life there.” In 54 career starts, Repo Rocks won 11 races, including six stakes, and earned $1.15 million on the track. Already regarded as a gritty East Coast runner, his popularity exploded in early 2023 when he capped a six-month stretch that included five stakes victories and a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Carter. Bred in Virginia by Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin III, Repo Rocks was purchased for $70,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale and made his debut at Saratoga for Bill Mott in July 2020. He lost eight straight races for the Hall of Fame trainer before being claimed by Double B Racing Stables and trainer Tom Morley, who finally got him into the winner’s circle in his 11th start in June 2021. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Double B switched trainers two more times before Repo Rocks entered Ness’s barn in late 2022. Though he had shown flashes in graded stakes company by that point, he instantly improved for Ness. The gelding won a pair of $75,000 stakes at Parx before shipping to Aqueduct for the Grade 3 Toboggan in January 2023. A 10-1 outsider, he won the race by 8 1/2 lengths with a 111 Beyer Speed Figure. Jockey Andrew Wolfsont, who rode Repo Rocks in five of his career victories, followed the gelding from Pennsylvania for the Toboggan, earning his first graded stakes victory on the mount of a lifetime. “I feel like he wasn’t 100 percent” in the two stakes victories at Parx, Wolfsont said. “And then in that Toboggan, everything went our way, and he hit the outside and just took off. We got to see how good of a horse he was, and he kind of surprised all of us with how good he was.” Two months later, following a win in the $125,000 Stymie and a game second in the Carter, Repo Rocks exploded again in the Grade 3 Westchester, winning the mile race by 5 1/4 lengths with a 109 Beyer Speed Figure. His torrid stretch with Ness ended when he suffered a setback in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. He did not race for nearly 11 months. After a brief stint with Rick Dutrow, Repo Rocks returned to Ness in August 2024 and finished his career with the trainer. Last July, the Virginia-bred returned home to Colonial Downs and won the $125,000 Edward P. Evans, a state-restricted stakes taken off the turf. It was his sixth stakes triumph, picked up in the third-to-last race of his career. “Sad that he won’t be able to” come back, Wolfsont said of his old mount. “He seemed like the kind of horse that just loved to run, and those ones, I feel, are better off in the races as long as they can be. But I’m sure he'll find a good retirement home.” Ness, who wants to ensure a prosperous retirement for his iron horse, said that he is “living the good life” in his barn, where the trainer hopes to keep him for the rest of his days. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.