Off the top of his head Gary Portelli says he’d had nine or ten Golden Slipper runners since his training career began thirty years ago. He still tingles when he recalls the euphoria of She Will Reign’s emphatic win in 2017 on a bottomless track. Jockey Ben Melham’s daring plan to go back at the start and immediately find the fence, worked out in spectacular fashion.
She will Reign was in front of three horses as they joined the course proper but had only Houtzen in front of her at the top of the straight. Melham’s prediction that nobody would want to be near the fence proved correct. It was almost as though he had the racecourse to himself. The frenetic mounting yard scenes following the success of the syndicated filly will be long remembered.
Gary’s closest finisher prior to She Will Reign was Down The Wicket who finished a 5.5 length sixth behind Miss Finland in 2006. The gelding marred his chances by being tardy to leave the gates and pulling hard in the run. He’d won the Black Opal at his previous start and later beat all but Excites in the Sires Produce Stakes.
The trainer remains adamant that Delago Bolt should have been right in the finish of Phelan Ready’s Slipper in 2009. Like Down The Wicket he’d won the Canberra Black Opal at his previous start and came into The Slipper as a $21.00 chance. He was a clear last out of the gates and copped a significant check at the 800m - a check only half as bad as the one he got at the 200m. “He was stopped in his tracks,” recalls Gary. “Who knows? That may have been the one that got away.”
As the annual Golden Slipper puzzle slowly unravels, Gary Portelli finds himself in a very enviable position. He has safely qualified a colt and a filly whose race records are almost identical. Sejardan and Fireburn have both raced four times for three wins. The former was third after a wide run in the Inglis Millenium, while Fireburn’s hat trick of wins was preceded by a luckless fourth at Warwick Farm on debut. Both have won twice on Good 4 ground, and both have won in Heavy 10 going.
Sejardan had a tendency to relax when he hit the front in the Todman Stakes but Jason Collett kept him up to the mark - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
It’s almost certain Jason Collett who has the pick of the Portelli runners, will plump for Sejardan as his Slipper ride. Gary’s not too concerned about finding a suitable replacement for Fireburn. “Once it’s known that Collett wants to ride Sejardan, there will be an avalanche of phone calls from jockey managers,” said Gary. “I can tell you a few jockeys have already put their hands up including Brenton Avdulla who’s back with a bang following his injury enforced layoff. Brenton has already ridden a Slipper winner and appeals as a suitable jockey for Fireburn.”
The experienced Portelli continues to marvel at Sejardan’s amazing temperament. “I’ve never seen a two year old quite like him,” he said. “About three weeks ago I decided to move him into another box at my Warwick Farm stables. We moved him quite some distance and put him in alongside two strange horses. That would normally be enough to send a two year old colt into a frenzy. Not this bloke. He sniffed the horse on either side and put his head straight into the feed bin. He couldn’t have cared less.
“He never sweats on the horse transport going to the races and goes to sleep in the tie-up stalls. If anything, he’s too relaxed. Jason Collett said he wanted to ease when he got clear of the opposition on Saturday. We’re hoping it’s only an inexperience issue, and one he’ll grow out of. Jason knows him backwards and will be ready for him on Slipper day.
A sign of the times. Gary Portelli captures Jason Collett's post race comments on his mobile phone - standard practice these days - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
“Fireburn on the other hand isn’t quite as laid back as her stablemate, but is getting better all the time. She’s a beautifully actioned filly which helps her to quicken even in heavy ground. When she won on the H10 at Randwick ten days ago, you couldn’t believe the way she accelerated from the top of the rise.
If this wet weather keeps up and we have a wet Slipper, I’m going to be in a better position than most other trainers,” said Portelli.
Sejardan (a combination of letters from the names of his sire and dam), was a $160,000 purchase from the Inglis Classic yearling sale and is already one of the bargain buys of recent times. He has accumulated $1,032,700 after just four runs, with more than half coming from his Golden Gift win last November. The Sebring colt gets his chance to more than triple that amount should he win the first $5 million Slipper on March 19th.
Fireburn is a twenty four carat homebred for Louis Mihalyka’s famous Laurel Oak Bloodstock. She’s by Laurel Oak’s own Rebel Dane whose forty start career produced two wins in Gr 1 events and placings in three others. Rebel Dane has already attracted attention as a rising siring prospect, with two stakes winners from just a handful of runners.
Fireburn is the product of a long term plan devised by Louis Mihalyka when Rebel Dane went to stud. The veteran syndicator put together a breeding syndicate with the purpose of purchasing a few mares to help get the stallion started. Fireburn’s dam Mull Over was a $22,000 buy at a Gold Coast broodmare sale. The daughter of So You Think came with only a Newcastle maiden win on her CV, but descends from a pretty tidy family. Her granddam is Danarani whose four wins included the Gr 1 Flight Stakes. Mull Over’s worth has already multiplied significantly. A Slipper win by Fireburn would bring her under the notice of high profile studs.
Fireburn revelled in the heavy going to win the Sweet Embrace stakes for Tyler Schiller - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The majority of Australia’s high profile horse trainers began their careers in the employ of established stables. Gary Portelli grew up in the NSW central western city of Orange, and by mid teens was an accomplished show ring performer. He also rode trackwork for his mother Morveen who held a trainer’s licence at that time. For a lengthy period of time young Portelli worked as a pastry cook in an Orange bakery. He would then attend to his trackwork duties before catching up on sleep.
Gary attained his own trainer’s licence in 1991 and won enough races on the western line to fire an ambition to try his luck in the city. He suffered an early setback which would have sent most country boys scurrying home with the tail between the legs. He’d accepted an offer to become private trainer for John Poletti, himself a former trainer and still a prolific horse owner. Just three months later Gary was left high and dry when Poletti regained his own licence.
With the support of his parents and brother Troy, young Portelli was able to keep his head above water by pre training horses for other Warwick Farm trainers. Steve Englebrecht was the first local trainer to put up his hand, and Gary has never forgotten it. Today he owns the stables from which he was unceremoniously dumped, and rarely has less than 55 horses in work.
An affable nature and a great passion for the game have been at the heart of his three decades in the Sydney training ranks. One of Gary’s earliest supporters was pioneer syndicator, the late Harry Lawton who put some well credentialed horses the way of the young Warwick farm trainer. Harry made clear his reasons for selecting Portelli over more high profile trainers. “I need a good horseman with the ability to communicate with the dozens of smaller owners who’ll be joining my syndicates,” said Harry. “He knows what he’s doing and he has a great way with owners. He likes them, and they like him.”
Gary’s rapport with syndicators holds true to this day. His association with Darby Racing led to the magical Golden Slipper win with She Will Reign in 2017. While he was looking after Sejardan at Randwick, another stable runner Sizzle Chic absolutely smashed a maiden field at Newcastle. Not surprisingly Alysha Collett was wearing the very identifiable Darby Racing colours.
A triumph for the Portelli stable and Darby Racing! She Will Reign dominated on the heavy track in the 2017 Golden Slipper - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
With just over a week to go Gary’s pre Slipper nerves will be kicking in. His Group 1 record is already a pretty tidy one - an Australian Oaks with Rena’s Lady, a NZ Railway Stakes with Gold Trail, a Rupert Clark and Manikato Stakes with Rebel Dane, and a Golden Slipper and Moir Stakes with She Will Reign. Coincidentally this isn’t the first time the Portelli stable has been doubly represented in the famous two year old race. Unfortunately Single Bullet failed to handle the H10 track as well as his stablemate She Will Reign in 2017, and beat only a few home.
Gary will closely monitor the work regime of his talented duo over the next week. Apart from that, there’s nothing more he can do other than cross his fingers when the all important barrier draw takes place on Tuesday March 15th. It’s all up to the sale ring graduate Sejardan and the Laurel Oak homebred Fireburn. Both horses are raced by large ownership syndicates. A win by either horse would trigger a stampede in the Rosehill Gardens parade yard.