Rebel Dane has drifted out to 2015 All Aged Stakes odds of $26, but trainer Gary Portelli remains confident that the talented sprinter is a winning chance in the Group 1 event at Royal Randwick tomorrow.
Rebel Dane has the chance to return to winning form in the 2015 Sir All Aged Stakes at Royal Randwick tomorrow. Photo by: Steve Hart
Rebel Dane produced a slightly lackluster effort when he returned to racing with a sixth place finish in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on March 27, but Portelli told Sky Racing HQ that the California Dane entire has trained on strongly coming out of his first-up run and is ready to perform well in the All Aged Stakes this weekend, but admits that his star galloper faces a tough assignment.
“It is a very tough race and it is at least the equal of the T.J. Smith you would imagine,” Portelli said.
“We have been really happy with him and I think that he is at his peak this weekend.
“The preparation before his last one he ran in the All Aged Stakes, but he backed up out of the T.J. off a heavy track and that just took the edge off him, so he raced flat.
“This time he has had three weeks between runs, he probably didn’t race as well as he did first-up last time, but I reckon he is right on track.
“He is going to need to produce a personal best on the weekend at this level and I feel in myself that he is ready to do it.”
Rebel Dane has not had a great deal of luck in running in his last few starts at Group 1 level and Portelli believes that luck will play a key part in deciding the winner of the All Aged Stakes this weekend.
Portelli said that Rebel Dane received every favor when he produced his career best performance in the Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes (1200m) last year and he is hopeful that the five-year-old will receive the same amount of luck tomorrow.
“We are just hoping that we have all the luck and some of the others don’t,” Portelli said.
“When we ran second in the T.J. last year a few horses were trapped off the track and it was an absolute bog and we just kept getting runs inside horses and we came out to the middle of the track to just run down Buffering to run second.
“Had we been one of the horses running wide or with trouble between horses we may not have got that result.
“It is all about luck and hopefully the track is playing fairly, so that every horse gets it chance.”
Chautauqua remains on top of betting at 2015 All Aged Stakes odds of $3 and is a clear favourite with Ladbrokes from Terravista ($5.50), Lucky Hussler ($7), Shooting To Win ($8) and Wandjina ($8).
