Ben Thompson has been confirmed as the jockey for Rothfire in the upcoming King Of The Mountain which will kick off racing in the New Year in Queensland at Toowoomba on January 1.
It will be the second running of the King Of the Mountain with Thompson looking to go back-to-back after clinching the inaugural running of the race on the home town hero Yellow Brick on New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2022.
Thompson rode Rothfire for the first time when the nine-time, Group 1 winning son of Rothesay resumed in the Group 3 George Moore on December 2 in a run which produced a typical committed effort from the Robert Heathcote trained runner.
Although he had to settle for second place that day, the fact that he stuck to the very well performed front-running Zoustyle all the way to only finish a half-a-length back, while lumping the steadying burden of 61kg, giving away a 5kg advantage to Zoustyle at the weights, spoke volumes about the on-going competitiveness of Rothfire, whose resilience has regularly been on display the highest level.
Apart from his wins, prime examples of Rothfire’s powerful prowess include a second place finish in the McEwen Stakes behind Imperatriz (who would go on to land the Moir, Manikato and Champions Sprint Group 1 treble) and, in the Stradbroke, a runner-up result behind Think About It (who would go on to beat I Wish I win and Private Eye in The Everest).
On that evidence, all being well, chances are that his rivals in The King Of Mountain will hold no fear for Rothfire … whoever they may be as, incredibly, with only twenty-one days to go to King Of The Mountain race-day, only two of the twelve places in the line-up have been confirmed with no less than ten slot holders still to make a decision on their respective runners.
