Rob pulls pin on Rothfire’s Dubai mission
ROB Heathcote will look to make Queensland a happy home hunting ground for Group 1 winner Rothfire after abandoning plans to race him overseas.
Before starting in the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes in Perth last November, Heathcote had formulated a blueprint to race the sprinter in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai in March.
Heathcote has a lifetime of happy memories after Buffering famously scored the Al Quoz in 2016.
However, the 12-time Group 1 winning trainer says Rothfire would have had to win the Winterbottom, where
he finished fifth as the $5.50 favourite and didn’t enjoy the firm track, to warrant heading overseas.
Rothfire will now target the Queensland winter carnival with his main goal the Group 1
Stradbroke Handicap, the race he finished third in last year behind Alligator Blood.
“There is no chance you will see Rothfire at the races in autumn, it will be the Queensland winter carnival for him,”
Heathcote Stradbroke goal.
“He was unlucky in that race last year from a wide barrier and still finished third behind Alligator Blood who I think is a world champion.
“If I can get him back into that form, we will certainly be very competitive again.
“I scrapped the overseas plan after he struck that hard track in Perth.
“For him to have gone to Dubai, which I was contemplating, he would have needed to have won that Perth race and pulled up great.
“But the fact he only ran fifth that was enough for me to pull the pin, bring him home and focus on the winter.” declared. “The will be his main