ROTHFIRE - A GREAT STORY JUST GOT EVEN BETTER

By Graham Potter | Saturday, May 16, 2026

It is hard to describe the enormity of the achievement of Rothfire and the Robert Heathcote’s win in the Group 1 Doomben 10 000.

The eight-year-old stunned his rivals with an absolute professional performance, winning like a good thing at a staggering starting price of $61, to create a forever highlight reel for Heathcote, jockey Brad Rawiller and Rothfire’s large group of ecstatic owners who celebrated a famous victory with cheers and tears that lit up the scene post-race and carried the moment into a place in Queensland racing folklore.

“I watched the race pretty much on my own … that was by choice,” said Heathcote, “and I saw he was wide the whole way … but he was travelling sweet. He never had to alter stride at any stage … Brad (Rawiller) never had to urge the horse along … he never had to restrain him.

“What you saw was the combination of a wonderful horse and a top quality jockey at work … genuine, genuine Group 1 performers. It’s as simple as that.”

But nothing has been simple about Rothfire’s career, which lurched from excellence to distress in the blink of an eye … back to a level of real satisfaction … and which has now reached heights again which could have been dreamed about only by the most optimistic.

It has been six years in-between Group 1 wins for Rothfire since he won the J J Atkins back in 2020 as a two-year-old. What happened in the intervening six years is quite extraordinary.

That J J Atkins win was Rothfire’s sixth win from seven starts. Fair to say, he had the world at his feet … he was, in fact, on his way to compete in The Everest … that is until the unthinkable happened with Rothfire suffering a career threatening injury when he fractured a sesamoid during the running of the Golden Rose in September 2020.

To say that Heathcote was devastated would be an understatement. Emotions as a trainer do not get much lower than Heathcote experienced that day but, after due to excellent off track care and rehabilitation, Rothfire did return to racing a year later … with a continuing care and management program, specific to Rothfire, being put in place by Heathcote.

Heathcote was already a top multiple premiership winning trainer and multiple Group 1 winning trainer, but his handling of Rothfire since he resumed from injury in September 2021 has been nothing short of magnificent … with Heathcote turning adversity into an achievement, crowned by the exhilarating, historic win in the Doomben 10 000, where Rothfire became the oldest horse to win the race.

But the biggest compliment to the stable’s handling of Rothfire … away from all of the big race statistics that can be quoted … came from Brad Rawiller in a post-race interview.

“He’s a happy horse,” said Rawiller.

It was a statement as simple as it was powerful, going right to the heart of how Rothfire, working together with Heathcote, has been able to keep racing so well for so long.

As with many success stories in racing though, Rothfire’s journey has been a team effort and Heathcote put his team’s contribution into perspective post-race.

“I’m going to ask the ownership … as a group … to give a small percentage to all of my staff, and I’m going to match that from my trainer’s percentage equally. It’s only fair we reward people that do all the hard work.”

A great story just got even better.

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