Gary Portelli will welcome Group One winner Gold Trail back to his stable this week after the sprinter’s recovery from two throat operations.
The winner of the 2010 Railway Stakes at Ellerslie, Gold Trail took Portelli and his owners Glenn and Lisa Morton to Singapore and Royal Ascot that year.
He suffered a back muscle injury in England and was given almost a year off and has had just five starts since June 2010.
His breathing problems were discovered after his failure in the Magic Millions Cup at the Gold Coast in January and he has since undergone two operations.
“He comes back into work this week. He has been up in Queensland and they tell me his throat looks good,” Portelli said.
“He had to have two operations. The first one didn’t work properly but fingers crossed this time.
“They had to laser a bit off his epiglottis.”
Despite Gold Trail’s problems, Portelli says he has no hesitation bringing the seven-year-old back into training at Warwick Farm where he is the stable favourite.
“He just loves being a racehorse and loves the stable life,” he said.
“I won’t push him if I don’t think he’s up to it and he already has a good home waiting for him with his owners when he retires.
“But I think there’s still plenty of life left in him and the aim is to get him to the spring carnival.”
Although Gold Trail’s back injury and his throat problems have curtailed his career, Portelli said he had avoided the more common issues affecting horses.
“He has been a wonderful horse to the stable and never had any soundness issues with his legs,” he said.
“We’ll take things one step at a time but I’m hopeful.”
Stablemate Rose Of Peace finished third in Saturday’s Listed Dark Jewel at Scone with Portelli eyeing a possible tilt at the final Group One race of the season, the Tatt’s Tiara in Brisbane.
