2169 days later – Rothfire adds 10,000 to JJ Atkins win in massive upset
Rothfire caused a Doomben 10,000 boilover with Robert Heathcote’s cult sprinter adding a second Group 1 triumph, nearly six years after his first.
Queensland’s folk horse, the eight-year-old Rothfire, sailed into the record books on Saturday as the oldest-horse ever to win the G1 Doomben 10,000.
Given a wide but confident passage by veteran jockey Brad Rawiller, the gelding swooped in the straight to overhaul placegetters Spicy Martini and Napoleonic, in the meanwhile landing his second Group One (after the JJ Atkins in 2020) and dragging his earnings well past $5.7 million for his owners and trainer Robert Heathcote.
It presents as one of the longest droughts between Group One victories at 2169 days, eclipsing such horses as Takeover Target (1645), Tie The Knot (1603), Winx (1414) and Alligator Blood (1302).
Heathcote, accepting his 13th career Group One, said he had brought the old horse to Saturday’s race unfancied, but that a last-start disaster in the million-dollar The Archer at Rockhampton (Rothfire finished second-last) had set them up perfectly for the Doomben 10,000.
“The trip up to Rockie tightened him up nicely,” the trainer said. “He got knocked down (in The Archer). The pundits obviously didn’t see it, but he did get knocked down and the rider copped a suspension, but he’s come here today in super order.”
Heathcote admitted he had struggled even to find a rider for Rothfire.
“No one wanted to ride him, and Brad’s just given him a pearler.”
Arguably the most popular result of the meeting, Rothfire managed to go one better in the Doomben 10,000 than his 2025 result, which saw him go down in a photo finish last year to Sunshine In Paris, Heathcote described it as “a little bit of redemption, a little bit of payback”.
The stats on the gelding this season, despite his age, have seen him win the G3 Sydney Stakes at Randwick in the spring, run second in the Listed Lough Neagh Stakes Christmas week, and now a victory in the Doomben 10,000.
Though it has been widely expected of the horse to retire any day, Heathcote may be eyeing a berth in the G1 Kingsford Smith Cup at Eagle Farm on May 30. Rothfire has twice contested the 1200-metre sprint, running fourth and third in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
“He’s been an absolute trooper for Queensland for, what, seven years now,” the trainer said. “This is his crowning glory, but we might even have another crack at the Kingsford Smith, I think.”
Previous to Saturday’s result, the oldest winners of the Doomben 10,000 had been seven-year-olds Eduardo in 2021, Takeover Target in 2007 and Gold Force in 1944.
Rothfire also became the first Australian horse this century to win a Group One race aged two (the JJ Atkins in 2020) and aged eight.
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