CRYSTAL PALACE defender James Tomkins has seen his ‘massive mistake’ racehorse turn into a superstar – netting him £116,000 in just TWO days.
The David Evans-trained Rohaan will run in the big race at Newmarket on Saturday.
Victory in the July Cup will win Tomkins and the horse’s co-owner Chris Kiely a whopping £289,646.
That works out at roughly £3,861 per second over six furlongs – a giant return even by Premier League standards.
But Rohaan’s rise is all the more remarkable because professional punter Kiely originally made a ‘massive mistake’ with him.
The duo are laughing now thanks to the horse’s three straight wins – two of which were with Tomkins, 32, as co-owner.
One of those was the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot last month – but Rohaan was all set to run in a different race at the royal meeting.
That got changed when Kiely was told Rohaan couldn’t run because he was a gelding – in other words, had his balls removed.
Kiely explained: “We bought the horse to go for the Commonwealth. After he won the Pavilion Stakes, I said to James he’ll go straight for the Ascot Group One.
“About six weeks after we bought him, the Sunday night before the first stage for the Wokingham and the deadline for the Sandy Lane, a friend of mine told me the horse could not run in the Commonwealth.
It's been a fine season so far for Rohaan!
Here's a look back at that performance in the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot…
Can he repeat the feat in the July Cup? pic.twitter.com/EG6sIutxLv
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) July 1, 2021
“I didn’t believe him, but we checked up and realised. Then I’m flapping around. What have I done?
“For the first time in my life I was panicking for a couple of hours – I’ve made a mistake, spending all this money and there’s nowhere to run him.
“At the time we didn’t want to run him against older horses. The July Cup wasn’t even on our radar.
“If we hadn’t have found out we’d be sitting here with no wins under our belt.”
Tomkins, who is said to earn around £55,000 a week at Selhurst Park, and Kiely were named new owners of Rohaan on May 19 this year.
Three days later the three-year-old bagged them £51,039 with victory in the Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock.
A giant 33-1 that day, Rohaan was then sent off at 8-1 for the Wokingham and won by a neck after coming from last to first.
Another win there brought home £64,800.
That’s £115,839 from just two races since Tomkins became co-owner.
Rohaan has been priced up at 7-1 for the July Cup, with Starman and Oxted joint-favourites at 4-1.
But Kiely reckons their little legend could go off favourite if the rain comes in.
He added: “I have probably watched the [Ascot] replay 300 times. The memento you get given I can pass down to future generations. It was an incredible experience.
“Once it sunk in the idea now is to go and try to do it again.
“We didn’t expect him to perform as he has in his last two runs and we didn’t want to take on the older horses, but now with the figures he produced at Ascot, we haven’t a choice now. We have to go and take them on.
“We’re looking like we might get the ground we need. We probably wouldn’t run him if there was firm in the ground description.
“The horse is in the form of his life, he takes his racing incredibly well. It’s a race we’ll never get another stab at and it’s the chance of a Group One.
“The horse is on an upward curve and I think we go there with an incredible chance and if there was rain to come we’d go and be almost favourite. It’s an incredibly hot race and it’s nice to be part of it.”
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