Rothfire leads to rejuvenation of unlikely horse trainer Rob Heathcote
Brilliant three-year-old maintains short-priced favouritism for Golden Rose
Rob Heathcote was at Doomben yesterday putting a team of horses through their paces in jump–outs and barrier trials, three new season two-year-olds among them, when the acceptances for the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) were released.
The self-taught trainer’s stable star Rothfire (Rothesay), an unfashionably bred gelding who comprehensively downed his blueblood rivals first-up in the Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m), was installed as a firming even-money favourite after nine acceptances were received for the Group 1 three-year-old feature on Saturday.
Rothfire drew the second widest barrier (eight), a gate that does not overly concern a confident Heathcote, who had his mind on matters closer to home when the Golden Rose field was confirmed.
“It’s just been a long day. I’ve had about 20 jump-outs but that’s what we do on a Tuesday,” said Heathcote when contacted by ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“I had a couple (of two-year-olds) who went quite nicely. It’s funny because it was actually this day last year when I first gave Rothfire (a jump-out) and he went so well. Soon after he had a couple of little trials, then he was off to the races and away he went.”
Reports coming from jockey Jim Byrne, who galloped Rothfire in Sydney yesterday, and Melanie Sharpe added to Heathcote’s enthusiasm heading into the Golden Rose and The Everest (1200m) three weeks’ later.
“Melanie, my racing manager, looks after him, rides him slow work, and everything’s been perfect (since the Run To The Rose),” the trainer said.
“Jimmy Byrne gave him his final gallop this morning in company with another horse and he went super, so we’re happy.
“He’s going into the race against top horses. They’re Group 1 horses – King’s Legacy, North Pacific … they’re very, very good horses but Rothfire looks like he’s one out of the box.
“When you’re even-money favourite anything but a win is a disappointment. But I’m fortunate I’m not in my youth, I’m in the twilight of my career, so I have been there before. I’ll be a little bit nervous, but that’s covered by the fact that he’s a bloody good horse and I’m confident in the horse. Whatever beats him I think will win.”
A winner of six of his seven starts at two, with the J J Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1400m) capping a stellar season, it’s Rothfire’s ability to absorb pressure that sets him apart from most other horses, according to Heathcote, who also reached Group 1 heights earlier this century with marvellous sprinter Buffering (Mossman) on seven occasions.
“The beauty with my lad is that he has a remarkable ability to switch off, so he can lead, sit outside the lead or he can take a trail depending on what the other riders want to do,” he said.
“Obviously, he has ability, but it’s his beautiful, calm demeanor and his relaxed nature (that helps him in a race).
“He’s pretty much had it from day one and nothing fires him up. When a jockey asks him to settle, he comes back off the bit, he travels and then he has that really nice ability to quicken up.”
The emergence of Rothfire as arguably Australia’s best three-year-old has also reinvigorated the five-time champion Brisbane trainer who was contemplating semi-retirement which led to him briefly forming a partnership with Chris Anderson.
“I enjoy what I do but I looked at retirement with the first stages of it a year or so ago. I did the partnership with Chris Anderson and that was thinking long-term to have a bit of an exit strategy,” he said.
“That was an experiment and I wouldn’t say it failed, but it wasn’t for either of us and, to be honest, it probably put a bit of air in my tyres and along comes a horse like Rothfire and ‘holy shit, away we go’.”
Parts of Heathcote’s unconventional entry into racing – he was a European tour guide-turned-horse trainer – have been well documented but it is a path that almost certainly would not be possible to achieve now.
“The only experience I had was going to the races in England with my brother Wayne. He financed a bookmaker, so in essence my brother was a very, very early version of Betfair (in England),” he recounted yesterday.
“I went to all the racetracks around England with him during my off-season from the travel industry.”
So, upon returning to Australia after 15 years overseas, Tasmanian Heathcote relocated to Brisbane where his unique “apprenticeship” began.
“I have never worked for a trainer in my life. That’s the irony. I pretty much read it out of a book. I had half a dozen of my brother’s horses thrust upon me and I said, ‘OK, how do we do this?’ and away we went,” he said.
“I made a lot of mistakes but everybody makes mistakes, as long as you try and learn from them. I know it’s an old cliche but that’s pretty much how I’ve done it.”
That naivety and willingness to learn arguably worked in Heathcote’s favour when he applied for a trainer’s licence.
“I was a strapper for six months, so I picked up enough knowledge to convince the stewards of the day that I knew what I was doing. I have always been able to talk my way out of most problems and I managed to convince them that I had some idea what was going on,” he said.
“You ask ten trainers a question, you could get ten different answers on how to train a horse or what to do in a specific situation. I was an open book and I would try so many different things, so in essence I threw the rule book out the window.
“I was lucky, in my first season I enjoyed immediate success and I’ve pretty much been in the top three or four trainers in Queensland ever since. My brother Wayne owned stables in Brisbane, so I had a good leg up and he loved a punt.
“He had horses with (Angus) Armanasco early and Tommy Smith, Bobby Thomsen. He’d been in racing all his life, so really without him (I wouldn’t be training).
“For someone to do it nowadays is probably impossible.”
Related links
Golden Rose Stakes acceptances