Gary Portelli wants to see Somepin Anypin pass his biggest test in Thursday’s Hawkesbury Gold Cup before he decides on any future targets for the promising gelding.
Somepin Anypin is the $1.65 favourite to notch his first stakes victory in the provincial feature, and Portelli is eager to see how the four-year-old handles Group Three company and his first test at 1600m.
Somepin Anypin has showcased his talent with back-to-back wins at Rosehill, including a course-record breaking all-the-way win over 1400m on October 22.
“You would think just by watching the way he has raced and finishes his races off that he should run the mile, but until you have a go you never really know,” Portelli said.
“Everything we’ve done with him has been with the view to him running a mile.”
The winner of five of his 11 starts and more than $200,000 in prize money, Somepin Anypin’s only run in stakes company was a ninth in the Group Two Hobartville Stakes (1400m) earlier this year.
Portelli said he hadn’t mapped out anything past Thursday’s race.
“We’ll know a lot more after tomorrow,” the trainer said.
“This is probably the hardest race he’s been in. We’ve got to make sure he gets through this and then, if he was to win again, we can sit down with the owners and have a chat.”
The options would be to progress to the Group Two Villiers (1600m) next month or save him for a real crack at next year’s autumn carnival with the Doncaster the logical aim.
“My preference would be to head towards the autumn but at this stage we’ll see what happens,” Portelli said.
“The Villiers is there (as an option). We won the Villiers a few years back with the same syndicate with Something Anything and I’m sure they’d love to win it again.
“If he was to get the job done again and just win nicely then we’d probably be looking at the Villiers.
“But if he runs a really big race and does something like last start again then we might have to be more adventurous and maybe pull the pin and really look to the autumn.”
Epsom Handicap fourth placegetter Willy Jimmy is second favourite in the TAB Sportsbet market at $7.50 with Renewed Vitality, who was almost five lengths behind Somepin Anypin when second last start, at $10.
The Hawkesbury meeting also features the running of the Listed Ladies Day Cup (1300m) with the Joe Pride-trained Takeover Target Stakes winner Title the $1.90 favourite.
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