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By Ray Hickson

Group 1 horses don’t come around every day and trainer Gary Portelli believes he has one in the shape of promising filly Queen Of Clubs who takes an important step toward realising that potential at Randwick on Saturday.

Trainer Gary Portelli (Pic: Bradley Photos).

With two Golden Slippers, an Oaks and a number of Group 1 sprints among nine wins at the top level the Warwick Farm trainer is well qualified to identify a smart one.

In two weeks Queen Of Clubs will get her chance to push Portelli into double figures but the Group 2 $300,000 Myplates Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) has to come first.

“I think she’s certainly got the potential, the market suggests we’ve got a filly good enough to win a Group 1,’’ Portelli said.

“These are the best fillies so we’ll know more this weekend. The main thing is that this is the race we have to have to go to the Group 1 spot on.”

Queen Of Clubs, $9 with TAB on Friday, is on the fourth line in the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) and is early favourite for the VRC Oaks.

Portelli elected to miss the Furious Stakes after the filly’s first-up third in the Silver Shadow a month ago preferring not to give her another 1200m run on the back of a heavy 10 resumption.

“She didn’t put two strides together but it was just her guts and stamina that got her over horses late and into third spot,’’ he said.

“It was such a tough run first-up the last thing we wanted to do was go back to six furlongs.

“We’ve been able to manage it perfectly buy having a gallop between races and the trial to keep her ticking over for 1400m. We’d love to see some good tracks going forward.”

A good track will present for Queen Of Clubs in the Tea Rose but Portelli is resigned to having to take the medicine from a wide barrier and ride her to hit the line, hoping the tempo is sufficient for her to make an impact late.

He said the last thing he wants is to have her bustled to be on the speed and risk being caught wide, resulting in another tough run.

“I’d be over the moon if we could run in the top three or four again,’’ he said.

“From a mile onwards is where she’ll step into her league. I’m not sure where we get to, we’ll probably be in the second half of the race.

“Whether she has that tactical sectional speed you need over 1400m at this level and against this quality of horse.

“Hopefully we can draw a decent gate over the mile when we need it, where we can actually use a bit of tactical speed.”

Portelli is hoping a surprise wind operation can bring Kintyre back from the wilderness when he resumes in the Group 3 $250,000 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m).

The five-year-old has run some handy races but hasn’t featured on the podium since May last year.

A problem was hinted at by some trackwork riders last preparation but it wasn’t until Kintyre’s last run back in April that it really presented itself.

“It came from nowhere, he was in great order,’’ he said.

“Craig Williams came back saying he was making noises going to the barriers. We got the throat operated on and it’s so far so good.

Queen Of Clubs runs third in the Silver Shadow

“Based on his trials he seems to be a much happier horse and he’s only got 54kg.”

Kintyre ran fourth in the Bill Ritchie last year and contested the Epsom and Golden Eagle. There’s no grand plans this spring but Portelli said he’d just like to see him back in form.

“He couldn’t have trialled any better than he has so far, he’s drawn three and he should run well,’’ he said.

“He’s been pretty consistent at the top level, he’s probably just a rung below the top horses but we know that so we’ll try to place him as best we can.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting