Portelli sweats on Millions run for Bullet

Monday 2 January 2017, 3:04pm

Promising two-year-old Single Bullet will be a Sydney acceptor this week, but trainer Gary Portelli is still prepared to play a Magic Millions waiting game with the colt.

Rated unlucky on debut when runner-up in the Wyong Magic Millions, Single Bullet sits just outside the field for the $2 million Classic.

A Warwick Farm win on Saturday would guarantee Single Bullet a Magic Millions berth but Portelli said he would it be a tough call to commit the youngster to an interstate trip on a seven-day back-up for the Gold Coast race.

"I've got a bit of thinking to do over the next few days," Portelli said.

"As it stands now he would be an emergency for the Magic Millions and I'm not too sure if there are any horses above him who are not certain to run.

"I can leave him in at Warwick Farm right up to Saturday morning if I have to and take it from there."

Single Bullet missed the start at Wyong before taking a lot of ground off Madeenaty, the Victorian-trained filly who shares the second line of favouritism for the Magic Millions behind Saturday's Canterbury winner From Within.

"It's been pretty well documented what happened to him at Wyong," Portelli said.

"Perhaps it is an omen. Maybe he's meant to be a Golden Slipper horse instead of a Magic Millions one."

Portelli has secured Melbourne jockey Ben Melham to ride Single Bullet on Saturday.

"Ben is well aware of the situation, but he was happy to take the booking," Portelli said.

Melham has become a first-choice jockey for Portelli this season after they teamed up to win the Manikato Stakes with Rebel Dane and last month's rich Inglis Nursery with She Will Reign.

Portelli has one definite Magic Millions runner in Falconic.

Falconic locked up his Millions berth with a Christmas Eve win at Rosehill and he will be shooting for a special bonus at the Gold Coast.

Just like Single Bullet, Falconic is eligible for a lucrative incentive available to Magic Millions runners owned by women.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »