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Gary Portelli has jumped at the chance to secure Tommy Berry to ride Rebel Dane in the Stradbroke Handicap amid speculation Glen Boss will ride Srikandi.
Portelli said he could not wait for Boss to decide and risk losing the chance to book Berry for the second favourite in Brisbane’s premier race on June 7.
Srikandi is the Stradbroke favourite following her win in Saturday’s Glenlogan Park Stakes and the decision by connections to pay a late entry fee to put her in the field.
“Unfortunately the situation was that Bossy came up with another nice filly this year,” Portelli said.
“We were of the understanding he was booked for the preparation but then once this filly won he wanted to have a look at the weights before making his decision.
“We basically didn’t want to wait and miss out on Tommy.
“There was pressure coming from his side because obviously he was going to miss out on a ride in the race if we didn’t book him.
“The owners and myself made a decision that Tommy was the rider in the best form.
“He’s the new whiz kid and he’s riding with so much confidence. His style of riding is also one where he’s great at getting these horses coming from off the pace to get through fields.”
Because she has not yet been entered, Srikandi was not given a weight when handicaps were released on Monday but is expected to get 50.5kg.
Weights will go up at least half a kilogram with confirmation Buffering will not run with 59kg. Spirit Of Boom will be the new topweight with the required 58kg.
Portelli was a little surprised at Rebel Dane’s 56kg after the horse ran fourth to Spirit Of Boom with Boss aboard in Saturday’s Doomben 10,000.
“I thought he might get in a bit lighter,” he said.
“He goes up half a kilo so at 56-1/2 he’s probably weighted right up to his best.”
Berry, who is riding on a short term contract in Hong Kong, will also ride Almalad in the Group One J J Atkins and Elusive Runner in the Queensland Derby when he returns for Stradbroke day.
Portelli has a long history with Berry and his late brother Nathan who grew up in the Warwick Farm precinct.
“As a kid Tommy used to run around the streets with his pushbike and tell me he wanted to be apprenticed to me when he grew up,” he said.
“I always thought he would be too big to be an apprentice.”
“But he’s the best rider in Australia at the moment.”
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Group 1 winner Rebel Dane has arrived in Brisbane ahead of the 2014 Doomben 10,000 and trainer Gary Portelli has revealed that the talented sprinter will not have another serious piece of work ahead of the Group 1 event at Doomben this Saturday.
Rebel Dane had his final serious trackwork gallop before the Doomben 10,000 in Sydney on Saturday.
Rebel Dane was given a testing gallop on Saturday morning after finishing second behind Absalon in a barrier trial over 1030 metres at Rosehill Gardens on May 12 and Portelli told Sky Racing HQ yesterday that the float trip to Brisbane was all that the California Dane entire needed before running in the Doomben 10,000 this weekend.
“He left at about half past four this morning and he is on the truck,” Portelli said yesterday.
“We are going to pull up about half way and give him a good hour rest somewhere and he will probably get there before 4.30 this afternoon.
“He had his gallop on Saturday morning, his last gallop because realistically these float trips up are as good as a gallop sometimes.
Rebel Dane prior to leaving for his trip to Queensland.
“I thought that I would give him a good gallop early in the week, he trialed last Monday as well over 1000 metres at Rosehill, so he has done plenty of work in the last month leading up to this.”
Rebel Dane returned to the races, after a lengthy stint in the spelling paddock, with a strong second behind Lankan Rupee in the Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on April 12, but was unable to replicate that performance when he finished fifth in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) at the same venue a fortnight later.
Portelli admits that he was extremely disappointed with Rebel Dane’s effort in the All Aged Stakes, but is hopeful that the four-year-old can return to his best form for the Doomben 10,000 and the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm two weeks later.
“The preparation was always to start off in the T.J. Smith, go to the All Aged and give him four weeks off into the Doomben 10,000 and a fortnight into the Stradbroke,” Portelli said.
“It was a bit disappointing what happened second-up.
“We were very keen on him and there was no reason or sign of anything that was wrong with him heading into the race and he just raced two lengths below what was expected by him from all of us.
“It leaves you a bit sort of shell-shocked, because you read the signs and all the signs were good, but obviously that run took a bit out of him and at this level you don’t want to lose anything because you can be found wanting very quickly.
“It was a disappointing day, but you have to pick yourself up and move forward and we have done everything that we can do to make sure that everything is right again and we hope that first-up run hasn’t taken too much out of him again.”
The road to the Doomben 10,000 has been rough in more ways than one for the favourite Rebel Dane.
The four-year-old put in a below-par run when fifth in the All Aged Stakes and left Sydney on Tuesday for the float trip to Brisbane with his handler reporting a few delays on the way.
Trainer Gary Portelli said he had done what he could to ensure Rebel Dane was in peak condition for his bid for a second Group One victory on Saturday and the rest was out of his hands.
“The strapper who is travelling with him said there had been a couple of accidents on the highway which put things behind by an hour or so,” Portelli said.
“It means he won’t get to Brisbane until later than planned and I just want to hear late tonight that he has eaten up and all is well.”
Portelli was pleased with Rebel Dane’s second in a barrier trial last Tuesday and gave him a final gallop at Warwick Farm on Saturday.
“With the float trip in mind, I didn’t want him to be doing too much when he got to Brisbane except trotting and cantering,” he said.
“He galloped really well and his recovery was fantastic. He is at his fighting weight of 482 kilograms. He was 483 before the All Aged and 480 before the TJ Smith.”
The trainer believes Rebel Dane’s second to Lankan Rupee on a heavy track in the TJ Smith Stakes in April took a lot more out of the horse than he showed in his work leading into the All Aged Stakes in which he failed to produce his usual dash.
“All seemed fine with him going to the All Aged so I’m hoping it was just a one-off,” Portelli said.
“And I hope he can draw a barrier for a change. He hasn’t had a lot of luck with them.
“Most of all we are just keeping things as simple as we can.”
Rebel Dane ran with a crossover nose band in his barrier trial and will sport the same gear on Saturday.
“He usually wears a nose band and the crossover one just adds another piece which keeps a horse’s mouth closed so it doesn’t pull and over-race,” Portelli said.
Rebel Dane is the TAB’s $3.70 favourite ahead of Wednesday’s declaration of the final Doomben 10,000 field and barrier draw.
Queensland star Buffering is at $4 with Spirit Of Boom at $4.80 and BTC Cup winner Famous Seamus at $8.
Having won two starts back at Yarran Glen on March 16, Grand Orator then headed to Caulfield over 1200m, running a very good race to finish third, beaten just under two lengths.
Trainer Tony Noonan the took the five-year-old Oratorio gelding to Mornington on Sunday and the move paid dividends, scoring a very good length win over the 1200m, defeating Magic Tom, with the third placed Quatermain, two-and-three-quarter lengths astern.
Settling back and wide, jockey Jake Noonan had the gelding where he appeared comfortable and allowed him to slow make up ground in the run. It always appeared that Grand Orator had the leaders well within his grasp, and as the home turn was reached, it was evident he was travelling very well.
Going on to achieve another victory, his fourth from 17 starts to date, the five-year-old is racing in career best form, and as we progress with him, further wins do not look out of question at all!
Having his races spaced appears to really suite Grand Orator and a massive congratulations must go to trainer Tony Noonan as well as his patient owners; Laurel Oak Aidan Syndicate (L J Mihalyka), F W Cook, Mrs C M Cook, G Duffy-Smith, Mrs K A Fraser & Ms A L Goble.
Grand Orator (Photo courtesy of Slickpix)