With 11 winners (22%) and a further 11 placings (44%) from his past 50 runners, trainer Gary Portelli is in a rich vein of form at present. He’ll be hoping to add to the win column when he lines up his consistent sprinter Spaceboy in the inaugural running of the $300,000 The Warra at Kembla Grange this Saturday.
Whilst the $200,000 yearling purchase has four victories and amassed over $500,000 in earnings along the way, the fact that the Deep Field gelding has 12 seconds to his name is not lost on the Warwick Farm-based conditioner.
“We’ve had no luck with the ones, we’ve had plenty of twos that’s for sure,” Portelli said.
“He’s been beaten a head just on the line so many times. Very good horses have run him down.
“Even the other day, how unlucky were we in a benchmark 100 to run into a horse like Southern Lad. He’s a group horse.”
When a galloper clocks up plenty of runner-up finishes, there are always going to be some detractors about the horse’s will to win. However, Portelli is adamant his charger is genuine and always puts in, and has just been a victim of circumstance on a few occasions.
“I know he runs a lot of seconds and the punters think he’s a cat, but he’s not getting beat four (lengths) and he’s not giving up,” Portelli said.
“He’s just getting run down by a horse that has had a softer run after he’s done all the hard work up front.”
The introduction of The Warra over the sprint journey has been welcomed by Portelli, who sees it as an ideal opportunity for his gelding to post a well-deserved victory.
“It’s a great concept, the 1000m is a perfect situation for our bloke,” Portelli said.
“I’ve sent him away for ten days for pre-training. He came back in yesterday, he’ll have a gallop on Wednesday and that’s all he needs for this weekend.”
Spaceboy will partner regular pilot Kathy O’Hara on Saturday, who has built up a handy record on the five-year-old.
“Kathy has had a great affinity with him,” Portelli said.
“She’s been on him for all four of his wins and the majority of seconds too.”
As to his current purple patch of form, Portelli isn’t across the current statistics.
“I actually don’t look at the maths, I just look at what’s in front of me.” Portelli said.
“Does it look alright does it?”
