As a Golden Slipper winner, Fireburn has already achieved more than most horses.
As an eight-time Group 1-winning trainer, Gary Portelli is even more accomplished.
But there would be few more satisfying achievements for the Warwick Farm horseman than winning Saturdayâs Queensland Oaks (2200m) with his 2022 Golden Slipper winner.
Not only have few Slipper-winning fillies gone on to triumph in a classic race, Miss Finland and Bounding Away being the modern-day exceptions, but many have struggled at stakes level as older horses, some never winning another race.
Indeed, Fireburn didnât place in three spring runs and while competitive during the Sydney autumn, she couldnât break her duck.
But a luckless fourth in the ATC Australian Oaks convinced Portelli that he had daughter of Rebel Dane and So You Think mare Mull Over on track, and her last-start victory in The Roses (2000m) â her first since the Golden Slipper â was vindication he was right to persist.
âTo win the Golden Slipper is a great achievement, but then thereâs that pressure that comes with it after they win,â Portelli said.
âSo many horses fail and there is a stigma that goes with it of trainersâ ruining horses.
âIt was a situation where youâre stepping a horse out to 2000-metres and some people would have thought, âwhat the hell are you doing? Youâve got a Golden Slipper winner stepping out to 2000?â.
âBut she has shown now that that is going to be her forte.
âIt wasnât me training her to do that, it was her telling me I needed to do that. We just read the play.â
Fireburn is a clear cut $3 favourite for Saturdayâs Queensland Oaks despite drawing barrier 16, with Renaissance Woman ($4.20) and Affaire A Suivre ($7) the only other runners regarded as genuine threats.
Portelli brought Fireburn home to Sydney between runs where she continued to thrive, and given The Roses was her first start in six weeks, he expected her to strip significantly fitter.
With even luck in the run, Portelli canât see Fireburn being beaten.
âShe has trained on beautifully for the race,â he said.
âNow that Iâve got her home and seen her at home, Iâm not concerned about her at all. She is one hundred per cent ready to back up and have a crack.
âUnless something comes out of the pack that has improved from that run itself, how can they beat her?
âI donât think they can.â