Gary Portelli can often find one or two horses who can fly under the radar.
Like Kimochi last spring, Queen Of Clubs and Encap may be the pair who can boost his stable’s presence this carnival with aims to knock over more fancied rivals at double figure prices at Randwick on Saturday.
Queen Of Clubs is rated a $20 chance for the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) with with Warwick Farm-based trainer hoping that the daughter of Japanese sire Maurice can return to her better form after suffering cardiac arrhythmia when finishing eighth and failing to finish off in the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) on October 4.
“She has come through the run well,” Portelli said.
“She’s had a couple of big bits of work since the race.
“They have a heart arrhythmia once and it never happens again. We were devastated during the Flight Stakes to see her basically fail to run on and that’s usually her go. She usually accelerates.
“They usually do bounce back. It is usually anomaly.”
While Queen Of Clubs takes on the boys in the Spring Champion Stakes, Encap will look to break a year-long absence from the winners’ circle in the Listed Five Diamonds Prelude (1500m) after finishing just over four lengths from Golden Eagle favourite Autumn Glow in the Group 1 Epsom (1600m) earlier this month.
“Encap is coming out of the Epsom and it was a good run,” Portelli added.
“He ran the second fastest last 600 of the race again from last. Hopefully things are run to suit for him.”
Encap is rated a $15 chance for the Five Diamonds Prelude with last start Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) winner Transatlantic at $2.15 following the scratching of main rival Rise At Dawn.
