THE ROTHFIRE STORY: MOVING TO THE NEXT CHAPTER

By Graham Potter with Robert Heathcote | Friday, September 18, 2020

On June 11, shortly after Rothfire had claimed his first Group 1 win, HRO posted an in-depth, behind the scenes story of Rothfire’s climb to glory. Here, HRO takes up that story from where we left off. Trainer Robert Heathcote fills in the details in a conversation with HRO’s Graham Potter as Rothfire’s career moves to the next chapter. The June 11 story can be found here ...

ROTHFIRE - THE FULL STORY. FROM CHEAP YEARLING TO A VALUABLE GROUP 1 STAR IN JUST SEVEN STARTS

Robert Heathcote takes up the story.

"I am pleased to report that Rothfire pulled up well after his win in Sydney on Saturday. He certainly pulled up better than his trainer … I had a Group 1 hangover on Sunday morning.

“Mel Sharpe, who is with Rothfire in Sydney, said on Monday that, when she rode him, you could tell he had raced. You could tell he had gone to the bottom of his tank. That fell in line with what Jimmy (Byrne) had said post-race. Jimmy actually said that he thought he was going to win by further but, 50m out, Rothfire had had enough.

“I suppose you can qualify that by noting that Rothfire came home in a time that was 0.13 outside of a twenty-three year old track record.

“Interestingly enough, early in the race a lot of people would have been thinking, whose the lunatic on Farnan going so fast. I certainly did initially … but subsequent analysis of the race by such luminaries as David Gately and Daniel O’Sullivan suggest that he didn’t go helter-skelter.

I’m sure if he had the ride over again Bowman would have taken the sit outside of Rothfire, but I’m not as critical of Bowman’s ride now as I was when I first saw it.

“I looked at Farnan charging along and I thought … he is a Waterhouse trained horse … he is hard … fit … muscle … two solid trials … best two-year-old in Australia last year … it looked like the plan was to run them into the ground and win by three lengths.

“But, when I saw mid-race that Jimmy Byrne was sitting back comfortably … four lengths … with Rothfire travelling well, I was pretty confident. I mean look at it again. There you have Hugh Bowman, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, a Golden Slipper winner four or five lengths in front of you and there’s Jimmy happy to sit four lengths back. It was an outstanding ride by Jimmy.

“I mean if Rothfire did get beat and Farnan got in by a neck, I might have had something else to say … but that didn’t happen because Jimmy knew exactly what he was going. His judgement was spot on. It was an outstanding ride.
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“With regard to Jimmy keeping the ride down there, I must be perfectly honest and say that I did make early overtures to James McDonald to see if he might be available to ride the horse … but, wait a minute, not because I didn’t want Jimmy Byrne to ride, but because of not knowing at the time how the restrictions on this moving monster that is Covid 19 might play out.

“For a while there, there was a big question mark about when or where interstate jockeys could ride in New South Wales and Jimmy might have been stuck … so I had to make precautionary enquiries.

“When that doubt about those restrictions was no longer in place Jimmy, without hesitation, said there is nothing that would get him off this horse.

“He was absolutely committed to Rothfire and the team … and I don’t think people fully understand the commitment he has made.

“No disrespect to Brisbane but, compared to down south, Jimmy is a big fish in a little pond here in Brisbane and, in that respect, what he is foregoing in committing to be away for up to six or eight weeks is quite huge.

Happily, The Run to the Rose win in some way has gone towards paying his expenses and justifying his decision.
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“Rothfire’s ‘Interstate Campaign’ has been a plan in the making for some time.

“After Rothfire’s Group 1 win in the T J Smith in June, he went out and had three full weeks of paddock spell … doing nothing for three weeks.

“I could have given him four weeks, or even four-and-a-half at a stretch, but I have learned from experience that it is always better to have that little ace up your sleeve in case anything goes wrong … and, lo and behold … what happened? The morning of his second trial he got cast and banged his leg. It was quite a scare in the moment but was not as bad as we first feared.

“The emotions went off the chart. I thought there could also be a hoof related issue which can take two weeks to resolve but there wasn’t, and it didn’t. It only cost me a couple of days and, thankfully, we were quickly back on track … but, no doubt, I dodged a bullet.

“It brought me back to the day where Buffering was 6-4 favourite for the BTC Cup and he picked up a stone bruise and we had to scratch him on the morning of the race.

“Rothfire then had a trial in which stable mate Ziemba came second (Ziemba has won two-in-a-row since then). It was one of those trials where winners have came out of.

“Rothfire then had that eye-catching track gallop at Eagle Farm. To be honest, I was initially disappointed with Jimmy’s ride in the gallop. I had asked him to give Rothfire a solid 600m … in fact, and I make no secret of it, I told him I wanted the fastest 600m of the day, including all of the races, to come from Rothfire.

“Jim said, not a problem … but then from the 600m to the 400m it looked to me that the horse was going half-pace. Then he has flashed to the line and I’m spitting the dummy. Jimmy said what are you complaining about, I’ve run 32seconds. Then the time flashed up on the screen … and I said sorry Jimmy.

“Because of the time, that gallop got more outward attention than a gallop normally does.

“Inwardly, all it did was make us confident that Rothfire was set to go and we headed south believing that, minor setback or not, we had him exactly where we wanted him to be.
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“When I sent Rothfire down south, I sent him down not knowing if he would gain a slot in The Everest.

“The desire was there to run in The Everest and the pressure grew when it became clear that there were two interested parties who wanted Rothfire to fill their slot for The Everest.

“One of the parties came to me and was ready to make a deal while the other party wanted to see how Rothfire fared in the Run to the Rose … but that wasn’t possible to wait. I went to miRunners and said, well, if you guys want my horse for The Everest you are going to have to make a decision … which they did. They took the horse.

“The proviso, of course, was always there that if the slot holders didn’t feel that Rothfire was going good enough after the Run to the Rose, they wanted to have the right to choose another horse … but that works both ways because, quite frankly, if I didn’t think Rothfire was going well enough I wouldn’t want him to run in The Everest anyway.

“If he had turned in a below par run I might have moved the goal-post to the Caulfield Guineas or considered something else, but neither of those proviso options needed to come into play after Rothfire’s cracking performance on Saturday. Nothing’s guaranteed but, we are sitting in the pound seats at the moment and we wouldn’t want to swop with anybody.

“Gaining entry into The Everest comes via an arrangement that the owners of the horse make with the slot-holder once a particular slot is offered to their horse. It is a negotiation and, once that agreement is reached, then a formal contract is finalised.

“A percentage of the prize-money goes to the slot holders and a percentage of the prize-money goes to the owners … as agreed upon in the contract.

“I think what we have with Rothfire is a good fit. I already train for miRunners. I enjoy the way they operate. I get a kick out of it even though a lot of trainers will probably baulk at having a thousand owners in a horse, but I eat that stuff up. It is not a problem for me.

“The excitement is building. I am pinching myself. I’ve been lucky in my career to have had Woorim, Solzhenitsyn, Fire Up Fifi and then Buffering comes along and now suddenly, with Rothfire, I’ve got a horse again with great prospects at the highest level.

“I am pinching myself but I am also trying to keep my feet on the ground because I’ve been there before and I know there are going to be some lows with the highlights … but the next month is going to be very interesting to say the least.”

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