Rothfire was the third-least favoured of the 15-horse field and did not appear to be in the reckoning when jockey Brad Rawiller was trapped on the outside of the field for practically the entirety of the 1200m trip, coming into the straight as the widest of all contenders.
The beloved Queensland native, dubbed the "Thriller from Chinchilla", sent racecaller David Fowler and the Doomben spectators into shock by turning back the clock - and turning on the afterburners - to take out the $900,000 prize and register its second career Group 1 victory.
Rothfire's first and only previous Group 1 win came during the Covid pandemic in 2020 when, as a two-year-old, he won the JJ Atkins Stakes in front of empty grandstands.
Only on Tuesday morning did the nine-year-old even have a rider for the race, when Heathcote put Brad Rawiller on a Saturday morning plane to Brisbane for just one ride and what would turn out to be a $45,000 pay cheque for the nearly 50-year-old.
According to racing writer Bren O'Brien, Rothfire has set a new Australian record of 2,169 days between a horse's first Group 1 win in Australia and its most recent, eclipsing the 1,862-day record of 2000s horse Bomber Bill (Robert Smerdon).
Rothfire has endured a storied career that began with Heathcote paying a $10,000 purchase fee twice for the Rothesay progeny, with the first lot of money infamously lost to a Nigerian phishing scam.
He also suffered a near career-ending injury in the year 2020 that ruled him out of that year's Everest in Sydney.
"This is the culmination of my career," Heathcote told Channel Seven after Rothfire's win.
"I've had many highlights but to win this race in front of such a wonderful crowd against a quality field and with all my family here, it means the world to me.
"To all the Queenslanders out there who had faith in Rothy, this is for you.
"I was struggling for a jockey there for a while, no one really wanted to ride him.
"This horse has been an absolute trooper for Queensland for seven years now, this is his crowning glory."
Rothfire is the first Queensland-trained horse to win the Doomben 10,000 since Spirit of Boom in 2014.
