Owners of Golden Slipper fancy Sejardan rebuff stud offers for exciting colt
Advances turned down for Portelli-trained Todman Stakes-winning son of Widden Stud’s late stallion Sebring
Gary Portelli has revealed he has been inundated with calls from studmasters soliciting the availability of buying into his talented colt Sejardan (Sebring), with just a week remaining before the leading juvenile bids for glory in the world’s richest two-year-old race, the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) at Rosehill.
However, the Warwick Farm-based trainer yesterday ruled out selling the last-start Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner despite intense interest from multiple parties in recent days, at least until after Saturday week’s $5 million juvenile feature.
Portelli’s exciting two-year-old, who also has wins in the ATC Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and the Golden Gift (1100m) on his resumè, is $7 second favourite for the Slipper behind Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winning filly Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) at $5.
Although Sejardan demonstrated that he was above average in winning Sydney’s first two-year-old race last October and backed it up in the $1 million Golden Gift, it was only after he won last Saturday’s Todman Stakes, coming from back in the field and arguably defying the track pattern of the day, that Portelli began fielding offers from studmasters.
So far, the colt’s syndicate of owners has rebuffed them.
“He’s been well sought after, but he’s not for sale at any stage at the moment, that’s for sure,” Portelli, who won the Slipper in 2017 with She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain), told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“The owners are pretty wealthy individuals who have been in this situation in the past. The Wallaces had Choisir and a couple of other other champions over the years and the McDonnells owned Sebring and the breeder (Dale Miller), he owns 30 per cent and still has the mare and the foals going through, so they’re not in a position where they want to sell.
“At this stage, for me, it is a situation where we race on.”
Sejardan’s only defeat came with a closing third in the Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) first up at Randwick on February 5 to fillies Xtravagant Star (Xtravagant) and Paris Dior (Pierro), but he showed his Golden Slipper campaign was well and truly on track with his Todman victory on a Heavy 10 surface.
“They’ve probably had all the time in the world to try and buy into him, but everyone’s been waiting for something else, looking for excuses for horses who have finished behind him,” Portelli said of stud overtures.
“Sometimes seeing isn’t always believing for some people and this horse from day one established himself as the best colt of his year.
“The only time he’s been beaten was when he took the fillies on in the Millennium, two fillies beat him that day, but as far as the colts go, I think he’s the best colt in Australia right now.”
Sejardan could possibly continue his juvenile campaign in the Inglis Sires (Gr 1, 1400m) and ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) following the Slipper if he runs up to expectations at Rosehill next Saturday.
“I have said all along that I was worried that the Slipper might be too short for him but there might be a couple of sharper ones around but now that it’s rained this week, that negates that speed and the worry of him looking for further on the day because you might need a horse that is looking for further,” said Portelli, who has been able to work his horses uninterrupted on the Warwick Farm Polytrack throughout the wet weather over the past couple of weeks.
Portelli also has Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winning filly Fireburn, a daughter of the trainer’s dual Group 1-winning sprinter Rebel Dane (California Dane) who has been victorious in three of her four starts so far, set for the Slipper. She is a $15 chance with bookmakers.
“I think I’ve got two fantastic chances for the Slipper and I can’t believe there’s that much difference in prices between the two, but I don’t do ratings and things like that,” he said.
“She is another one where ‘seeing is believing’. She should be unbeaten, she should have won her first start, she had no luck, so she should be four from four and there isn’t a horse going around with that record.
“They are still looking around her and I think they could pay on the day because I reckon she could be the horse who could blouse the lot of them.”
As for comparisons between Sejardan and Fireburn and the trainer’s brilliant filly She Will Reign, Portelli said: “While these two are very good horses, don’t get me wrong, She Will Reign was freakish in what she did in trackwork.
“She could go to the races and reproduce her trackwork while these two work like any normal horse. They don’t go out there to burn turf but they turn up on race day with a big finish.
“When she was two, she was just so dominant.”