The best is yet to come for Portelli’s Perfect Pitch
TRAINER Gary Portelli has declared his filly Perfect Pitch as one to watch going forward after the two-year-old took out the opening race at Rosehill in eye-catching fashion.
Following long-time leader Miss Invincible ($1.70 at William Hill), the daughter of Pierro and Absolutely Flying was never truly balanced at any stage until the final 100m but was good enough to get in front when it mattered to return $12.60 at Crownbet.
Toulouse closed well to deliver $3.20 to Sportsbet customers.
The big disappointments of the race came from the royal blue. Highly fancied Godolphin pair Rheingau and Colombina never looked like winning hopes and neither truly figured in the finish..
The winning trainer said his horse delivered a powerful performance befitting the strong bloodlines.
“Fantastic to see that this filly got the job done today,” Portelli said.
“She’s a half-sister to a good little filly Lipizzan for Laurel Oak and their syndicate, they bred the horse and I trained the mother.”
Portelli said the double figure odds on offer for his elect belied the winning chance he believed Perfect Pitch had.
“I was pretty confident coming in today.
“I did all the trials and no one wanted to talk about this filly. She had no luck at Canterbury, I think she should have finished a lot closer to Gongs and she’s come on since the run, I know it’s only 18 days ago but we got plenty out of it.”
Both the first and the second placed horse looked miles ahead of the field on class alone, and the pair look like horses that have plenty of improvement left in them.
Portelli believes we could see the next staying champion from his stable in the form of Perfect Pitch.
“What you saw today is probably just a taste of what’s to come for this filly,” the trainer said.
“You could see she was floating around in the straight, she was never going to win until the last stride really. She changed legs a couple of times (but) she’s got a real stayers action for me, she’s going to be great horse as a three-year-old later on.”
Without wanting to commit to a pathway going forward, Portelli said the plan will be a wait and see approach for the exciting filly.
The trainer did rule out a trip to the Gold Coast however, but did not state categorically if we have seen the last of the two-year-old in 2017.
“We probably wouldn’t push on towards the Magic Millions or anything like that for now … we’ll just see how she pulls up and work out a plan.”