A relieved trainer Gary Portelli is now dreaming of a second Golden Slipper after watching She Will Reign’s little brother make a winning debut at Randwick.
She Will Reign, won the 2017 Slipper and added the Moir Stakes to her Group One resume, has been retired and sent to Japan for broodmare duties.
While She Will Reign cost Darby Racing $20,000 as a yearling, they had to go to $325,000 for her half-brother by Time For War.
The colt jumped cleanly for Rachel King and was never headed in Saturday’s Kirkham Plate (1000m) for two-year-olds, finishing 2-1/4 lengths ahead of Absolute Control with Evening Slippers another length third.
After the scratching of Breeders’ Plate runner-up Covert Ops, Evening Slippers was promoted to $3.20 favouritism ahead of Time To Reign at $3.70.
“It is good to see him do that because he is a potential stallion,” Portelli said.
“He is very green. He has never been away from Warwick Farm before so the day was all new to him.
“I know he is talented. It was just a question of how he handled things.
“We will look at the Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington now.”
Portelli said there were few similarities to She Will Reign.
“You can compare them in ability but not much else.” he said.
“But hopefully he can win us another Slipper.”
King said his ability was obvious and he would learn a lot from his first start.
“He hasn’t done a lot of work and he stopped and waited for the others,” she said.
“He saw the big screen and watched himself all the way down the straight.
‘He’s obviously got a lot to learn and he will take great benefit from the experience.”
