By John Schell
Gary Portelli will send three gallopers from his Warwick Farm base to Bathurst on Sunday and has high hopes of success.
Trainer Gary Portelli.Credit: Getty
Portelli will have Firealarm in the Macquarie Medi Spa Maiden Handicap (1200m), Roman Miss in the Don Pearce Tribute Benchmark 58 Handicap (1200m) and Star Legacy in the Bathurst Plumbing And Gasfitting Benchmark 58 Handicap (1400m).
Jockey Mikalya Weir will partner all three of the Portelli runners at Bathurst.
“Roman Miss looks to be the best of the three,” Portelli said.
“She should go forward and race near the lead, and she only needs to run up to her win at Orange a couple of starts ago to be rated the one to beat again. Mikayla has been on her at her latest couple of starts so she knows her well enough now.
“All things being equal, she should takesome running down.”
Star Legacy is resuming from a spell, and Portelli is confident he is ready to race well fresh.
“His best runs last campaign were early in his preparation,” Portelli said. “He managed to win his maiden at Gosford when he was third up from a spell, and his first two runs in that preparation were also very good.
“I’ve given him a couple of trials to prepare for his return to racing, and they have both been solid efforts.
“It looks to be a nice race or him and I expect him to run very well with the wide alley being the main thing he has to overcome.”
Firealarm is also resuming from a spell, and the son of Tosen Stardom has only figured in the placings in one of his seven starts, with that effort being at Bong Bong last November.
“While he’s only been placed at Bong Bong, he has run a couple of good races at Canberra over a mile and 2000m,” Portelli said.
“He’s had a trial to be readied for his return to racing and kicks off his campaign over 1200m.
“It might be a bit short for him at this stage but hopefully he will be hitting the line well.”
Supplied by Racing NSW
Full form and race replays available at racingnsw.com.au
