With Gary Portelli enjoying a superb run, he will turn to a half-sister to Caulfield Cup winner Mummify to continue the stable’s success at Warwick Farm.
Aside from having Golden Slipper second favourite She Will Reign in his stable, the Warwick Farm trainer added the $1 million Magic Millions Cup to his keeping on Saturday with Testashadow’s upset win on the Gold Coast.
Back in Sydney after finding a handful of horses to add to his team at the yearling sale, Portelli will saddle up four-year-old mare Bel Serene in Wednesday’s TAB Rewards Handicap (1300m) on her home track.
Despite Mummify’s shortest win coming over 1800m, Portelli has concerns 1300m might be too far for sprinting mare Bel Serene.
“Hopefully her dam line will kick in,” Portelli said.
“She’s a half to Mummify so maybe she can just stretch out to that distance.
“If it’s an easy 1300 metres she’ll be up on the pace and she’ll get every chance for (jockey) Rachel King.”
With trial form less than two lengths behind dual Group One winner Global Glamour and her Group Two-winning stablemate Scarlet Rain, Portelli expected more than Bel Selene’s first-up sixth at Canterbury on January 6.
After sitting three wide during the 1100m race, Bel Selene didn’t fire a shot in the straight.
“That was a bit of a messy run for her,” Portelli said.
“She got trapped in that position you just don’t want to be in at Canterbury three deep in an 1100 metre race and didn’t finish off.”
Former UK rider King claims a two-kilogram allowance as she looks to add to her two victories on Bel Selene in October.
“She knows how to ride her and I think that two kilograms could come into play over the 1300 metres,” Portelli said.
Bel Selene is a $6 chance and shares the third line of betting with Godolphin’s last-start provincial maiden winner Philosophy.
The Anthony Cummings-trained Top Of My List heads the market as a $3.20 hope ahead of $5 chance Tswalu from the David Pfieffer stable.
Meanwhile, She Will Reign is set to trial at Warwick Farm on February 6 ahead of the Group Two Silver Slipper at Rosehill on February 18.
“She’s doing some early stages of her three-quarter pace work,” Portelli said.
