Rothgo bounces back for John Thomas

By Glenn Davis

It’s a case of little fish are just as sweet these days for Toowoomba trainer John Thomas and underrated sprinter Rothgo.

They head to Kilcoy on Friday.

Rothgo, who tackles the 1200 metre Benchmark 65 Handicap, looked to be above average as a two-year-old. 

He won his first two starts before running in the Group 3 Ken Russell which was run at the Sunshine Coast in 2023.

Thomas couldn’t pinpoint the cause of Rothgo’s poor run in the Ken Russell before discovering later he had contracted a virus.

“He went amiss in the Ken Russell and I couldn’t work out why until a few days later when he came down with a virus,” Thomas said.

“It took quite a while for him to come right.”

Rothgo went winless for the next two years before claiming a 1200 metre Class 2 Handicap at Toowoomba in April.

However, Thomas soon struck another hurdle with the son of Rothesay who is owned by Glenmorgan's Cameron Benjamin and his wife Kristina.

“Cam is an old mate of mine who I got to know when I worked in the mines and he’s got a few horses with me now,” Thomas said.

About a week after Rothgo won at Toowoomba in early April, Thomas heard one of his horses kicking a fence.

It was Rothgo who was shaking and sweating profusely.

“It turned out he had a bad bout of colic and needed an operation,” Thomas said.

“I took him to the vet on the float and he seemed to have settled down but the vets said he had to have surgery straight away.

“He came through the operation well, but the vets said he was lucky to be alive.”

Rothgo showed he had made a full recovery from his colic surgery when he won first-up in an 860 metre Benchmark race at Gatton on September 25.

However, he disappointed at his next start and is coming off a sixth to the Chris and Corey Munce-trained Oberoi Princess in an 1100 metre Class 4 Handicap at Ipswich last month.

“He didn’t put in for some reason at Ipswich, that’s why he’s going to Kilcoy,” Thomas said.

“Hannah Richardson has ridden him at his last two starts and she knows him well, so she’ll ride him again.

“He seems to have come right now and he should be hard to beat even though he’s got his share of weight.”