Portelli made a pre-trial request to the Australian Turf Club to contest a
trial against the older horses with the aim of riding Secret Lady (pictured Steve Hart) with a sit
but the daughter of Choisir was too fast, leading all of the way to win the
heat in the fastest time of the day – 46 seconds."She probably began too well for what we set out to do,” said her rider Ben Melham.
"Ideally, we wanted to ride her with a bit of cover but she was too brilliant and I just had to go with her then.
"It’s important with two-year-olds like her that have good speed, you don’t take it away from them.
"I think she’s a naturally fast running horse, that cruises just under her top and can sustain pretty solid sectionals.
"She’s a lovely neat filly and gave me that nice feel when she let down.”
Melham won the Golden Slipper this year for Portelli on She Will Reign and will return to Sydney to ride Secret Lady in her next start, a two-year-old plate over 1100m at Randwick on December 30 before the filly’s immediate grand final in the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) on the Gold Coast on January 13.
Chris Waller has been asking more of his two year-olds this season and produced
The Autumn Sun to win his heat in good style. It was his second outing and
second win, with The Autumn Sun travelling in second and then hunting down the
leader Bad Boy for Love to win by a head.A $700,000 Inglis Easter purchase for Hermitage Thoroughbreds/ Chris Waller from the Arrowfield draft, The Autumn Sun is not really bred to be a slick up and running two year-old, so the ability he is showing now is probably a bonus.
By champion sire Redoute’s Choice, The Autumn Sun is the second foal of Azmiyna (IRE), a half-sister by Galileo to four-time Group I winner and sire Azamour, best known in Australia as the sire of this year’s Group I MRC Thousand Guineas winner Aloisia.
Other juvenile winners were Tell No Tales (Your Song) and Our Dawn (Snitzel),click here to see all the trial results.
