Rebel Dane tracking nicely for Valley tilt
REBEL Dane, the Moonee Valley track specialist, can provide trainer Gary Portelli with more Group 1 glory in the $500,000 William Reid Stakes tonight.
Portelli, who achieved a career-high when She Will Reign won the Golden Slipper in Sydney last Saturday, said Rebel Dane saved his best for the tight Valley circuit.
A two-time Group 1 winner, Rebel Dane won the Manikato Stakes under lights at this track last spring then ran unplaced in the Hong Kong International Sprint.
Rebel Dane resumes tonight but has pleased Portelli going into the William Reid Stakes (1200m), including his second in a Warwick Farm barrier trial this month.
“I feel he is right on track, it is just a matter of him getting a bit older now and whether he takes longer to get to his peak,’’ Portelli said.
“There are not many sevenyear-olds who win first-up at this level but he does have a great record fresh and he will let them know he is in the race.’’
Rebel Dane’s Manikato Stakes win, which took his career earnings to almost $2.5 million, was his first at Moonee Valley but Portelli pointed out that the sprinter has never run a bad race on this track.
“Whenever Rebel Dane has run against the best, this is the track where he has been the closest to them on the line,’’ the Sydney trainer said.
Rebel Dane is an $11 chance for the William Reid Stakes where the Team Hawkestrained colt Star Turn is favourite at $4.40 just ahead of the speedy mare Sheidel ($4.50).
Sheidel already has an Oakleigh Plate win this campaign and her co-trainer Tom Dabernig believes she is in the right form to challenge for another Group 1 victory tonight.
Sheidel ran in the Oakleigh Plate (1100m) first-up at Caulfield last month and snared her first elite-level win before finishing fourth to stablemate Redkirk Warrior in the Newmarket Handicap (1200m).
Dabernig felt jockey Damien Oliver restrained the mare too much early in the Newmarket which he thought cost her a closer finish.
“If he would have let her flow I reckon she would have run a place for sure,” he said.