Platinum Skye To Join Portelli’s Spring Team

Gary Portelli

Gary Portelli will target five-year-old mare Platinum Skye towards the Spring Carnival

Gary Portelli is the latest trainer to acquire a new horse with the purpose of targeting this year’s spring carnivals in Sydney and Melbourne.

Platinum Skye is the thoroughbred in question and she arrives at the Portelli stable with a good record and gives every indication she’ll handle the metro circuit full time.

The five-year-old mare has spent her racing career so far out in Parkes in country New South Wales.

There she was trained by Sharon Jeffries, a far cry from the massive operation she’ll soon find herself in next month.

It’s obvious to see why Portelli was keen to get the mare though with a relatively light 18 race career producing good results.

All up she’s won 10 of her starts with another four placings meaning her strike rate is exceptional.

“She will be a nice addition to the stable and we hope she likes being in a city environment,” Portelli said.

“We would like to take her to Melbourne and give her a crack at some races down there.”

She is no stranger to the city though having plenty of starts closer to the coast as her career progressed.

She began racing with a bang winning four from her first five before heading to Randwick.

Unfortunately she couldn’t hack the heavy track and was more than 20 lengths away from the winner.

After that she went back west before winning in Canberra in May last year.

Her second trip to Randwick came in February of this year and a good track meant she could run to potential and win the event easily by over two lengths.

Since then she’s had another win in Canberra and last start she ran third during the Scone Carnival behind Motspur and Group 1 winner Atomic Force.

In addition to that she’s also the record holder over 1000m at the Randwick Kensington track with a time of 56.84 seconds set in February.

There’s no word yet on the race program Portelli is working on for Platinum Skye.

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