Group One sprinter and Robert Heathcote’s current stable star Rothfire looks to be a surprise entrant to the Doomben 10,000 on Saturday after the stable confirmed he would line up.
Heathcote confirmed his runner would line up at the weekend should the Dooben 10,000 be moved from the soggy Doomben track and over to the quicker drying Eagle Farm course.
Should the meeting remain at Doomben then it is unlikely that he would run at the track given the waterlogged conditions with the stable and jockey James Orman looking for better ground for the $1m feature.
With heavy rain forecast and some flash flooding expected in areas of the state it is expected that the only option to keep racing going on Saturday is to use the Eagle Farm course which shouldn’t be affected by the soaking conditions.
The decision to allow Rothfire to tackle the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 considerably speeds up his return to racing after having only competed in the Victory Stakes two weeks prior.
With an original plan to tackle the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup in two weeks still on the cards the decision caught even the bookmakers off guard with a number of the bookies not having listed in the Doomben 10,000 markets.
Rothfire was beaten into fifth when resuming as the $1.90 favourite in the Group 2 Victory Stakes last month but the camp wasn’t disappointed with the run.
“It was a good effort considering he was returning from a fair time off, he jumped from a wide gate and we had to do some work early in the race,” Orman said.