THE PARALLEL PATHWAYS OF ALLIGATOR BLOOD AND ROTHFIRE - AS BOTH LINE UP THEIR FUTURE TARGETS

By Graham Potter | Monday, February 21, 2022

It seems a long time ago now when two top class racehorses from Queensland seemed set to carry on their good work and make their mark on feature races around the country.

It was 2020 that promised so much for Alligator Blood and Rothfire.

Alligator Blood, then trained by David Vandyke, had moved his career along to be able to boast a record of ten career wins from eleven starts by the time he won his first Group 1 in the Australian Guineas on February 29, 2020. (He would later lose the Magic Millions success on a disqualification).

Rothfire would follow Alligator Blood onto the Group 1 winner’s honour roll by winning the Group 1 J J Atkins on June 6, 2020. His record was more condensed than Alligator Blood’s (understandably as Alligator Blood is a year older than Rothfire) … but it was just as impressive, with the Rothesay gelding having claimed an outstanding six wins from just seven starts when his Group 1 win went up on the scoreboard.

Just eight months after his Group 1 win … and four runs later without another victory … Alligator Blood’s career was well and truly at the crossroads after he was diagnosed with a ‘kissing spine’ which required surgery and a long and delicate rehabilitation period.

As a consequence, Alligator Blood did not race from November 1, 2020, until August 27, 2021, when he resumed for a new stable, that of trainer Billy Healey.

Just three-and-a-half months after his Group 1 win …. a severe sesamoid injury sustained in the Golden Rose left Rothfire’s career dangling in the wind with nobody able to say at the time whether that was it as far as his career was concerned … or whether there would be any chance of a comeback.

As a consequence, Rothfire did not race from September 27, 2020, until September 18, 2021, when, after a rehabilitation period that went as well as it possibly could, he returned to the care of trainer Robert Heathcote and resumed in the Group 2 The Shorts.

Between these two potential top liners, they had lost twenty-two months of race action at what should have been the pivotal, career defining period of their careers.

Alligator Blood, who has moved training yards again and is now with the Gai Waterhouse/Adrian Bott stable, again hasn’t raced for two months, but he is certainly making waves at the trials (he won his latest trial by 6.50 lengths at Rosehill on Monday) and his connections are hopeful that he might come through everything well enough to earn a place in The Doncaster line-up.

Rothfire who last raced four-and-a-half months ago is back at Robert Heathcote’s stables after another break where the major goal of The Stradbroke has been pencilled in … again, obviously, only if all goes well.

It is almost as if these two runners have been operating in parallel.

Already there is a line of people who have to be acknowledged for their work and diligence in getting Alligator Blood and Rothfire this far … second time around … and it goes without saying that if one, or both, of these runners claim any further success in their careers, never mind Group 1’s, it will be an achievement to be cherished.

The question on the line now, as both look to revive their respective fortunes, is … can they re-join a tough, feature race world, which has powered on in their absence, with any of the old bite that, at one stage, made them such serious contenders … wherever they went.

The odds might suggest they are up against it after all they have gone through but, as always, the beauty of racing is that nobody can say for certain what will happen next.

The sure bet though, is that their respective comeback paths will be followed with keen interest in the coming months.

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