Vekoma’s Rolando sets track record in $100,000 Petramalo Mile
August 9, 2025

Rolando rolled to a four-length victory in the $100,000 Petramalo Mile at Colonial Downs in a track record-breaking performance by the 3-year-old Vekoma colt.
Rolando, who had been away from the races since early April, broke quickest of all from the outside post in the field of eight and opened up a 1 ½-length lead in the first quarter mile. He maintained that advantage through a half-mile in :45.22, then began to widen his lead around the turn. Unchallenged the rest of the way, Rolando coasted under the wire in 1:33.55, which lowered the previous track record of 1:33.70 set by Continuation in 2021.
“You ride a horse like this you don’t have to do much,” jockey John Velazquez said. “I was hoping someone else went to the front and I would sit off of them but the way he broke today I wasn’t going to fight him. I kept him five wide until we got to the turn and then dropped him down. It was his first start after a long break so I was just concerned about getting him settled early.”
Winner of the Gulfstream Park’s Hutcheson S. in March, Rolando is now 4-1-2 in eight starts and has earned $232,860. The chestnut colt races in the name of his breeder St. George Stable LLC.
The champion freshman sire of 2024, Vekoma leads the year’s Second-Crop list in nearly every statistical category; his $7.03 million in progeny earnings is $2.5 million clear of all other Second-Crop sires.