Trainer Gary Portelli has reported that Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign has returned from a spell muscled up as she begins her preparation to conquer the $10m The Everest (1200m) at Randwick in October.
She Will Reign, above, is being prepared for The Everest at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.
Portelli gave She Will Reign a ten weeks break after the filly won the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 18 and is delighted with the way she has arrived back at his Warwick Farm stables where nothing has changed.
“She has come back a lot stronger and we’re excited to see her back in the camp. She was pretty excited to be back at trackwork this morning too. She was straight back into her normal stable and into the routine,” Portelli told Racing New South Wales News.
“I feel a bit sorry for her though as she left Warwick Farm as a bog and she has come back with Warwick Farm as a bog!”
“Our foreman said she went out looking like a young girl and has come back looking like a young woman. She has an older looking head on her, is stronger through the shoulder and neck and has thighs on her like you wouldn’t believe. She has a massive hindquarter.”
The timing of The Everest which will be run in the middle of October has given Portelli plenty of time to have the rising three year old filly fit and has selected the Group 1 $500,000 Moir Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley on September 29 as her only lead up race for the inaugural running of the $10 million sprint.
“She’ll have two trials in September and then go into the Moir which gives her two weeks into the big one,” Portelli said.
“I’m hoping she has improved her times as much as she has physically because if she has done that she’ll line up against the Chautauquas and what have you and be very competitive. You’d imagine she’d carry 51kg pretty easily so we’re looking forward to the next few months.
“She had 10 weeks in the paddock rather than the four weeks they usually get. She has had the extra month to get over her campaign.”
“The Everest might be a blessing given she doesn’t have to race early in her campaign because it is half way through in October. We didn’t have to rush her back.”
Portelli is only looking at two runs during the 2017 Spring Campaign and will spell She Will Reign again before preparing her for the big sprints in the 2018 Autumn Carnival.
“I’d be pushing for her to spell again after that and come back for all the big sprints in the autumn without taxing her too much,” Portelli said.
In early betting for The Everest at Ladbrokes.com.au, She Will Reign has been posted as the second pick at $7 behind the three times T J Smith Stakes winner Chautauqua at $4.80.
Chris Waller’s champion mare Winx is very unlikely to take her place in the 1200m sprint but is listed as an $8 chance ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s unbeaten three year old Caravaggio and Team Snowden’s Russian Revolution at $11.
Early market order for the 2017 The Everest at Ladbrokes.com.au: $4.80 Chautauqua, $7 She Will Reign, $8 Winx, $11 Caravaggio, Russian Revolution, $13 English, $15 Houtzen, Spieth, Vega Magic, $17 Lady Aurelia, $21 Fell Swoop, $26 Acapulco, Black Heart Bart, Lankan Rupee, Limato, Mecca’s Angel, Redzel, $34 or better the rest.
