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By Ray Hickson

A small setback in Kimochi’s autumn preparation could prove to be in her favour as trainer Gary Portelli gives the Group 1 winning mare the chance to break new ground at Randwick on Saturday.

Trainer Gary Portelli (Pic: Steve Hart)

It wasn’t plan A to return in the Group 2 $500,000 Schweppes Challenge Stakes (1000m), given she’d never raced over the short course before, but a minor paddock incident forced Portelli’s hand.

Kimochi, who hasn’t raced since winning the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke over 1400m in November, trod on a shoe toe clip while spelling and that cost the trainer a bit of time.

“We had a little setback and we couldn’t get at her and get her ready for all these other races,’’ he said.

“I thought we’d give her one trial and go to 1000m and Nash (Rawiller) was pretty confident she’ll be very competitive. We’ve just seen a very sharp, fast, stronger mare come back.

“She’s very good fresh and she’s got good gate speed.

“I just think it’s a perfect race for her, she’ll get back a bit and be charging through the line and we can build her up from there.”

Portelli believes Kimochi, $4.20 with TAB on Wednesday, would be perfectly suited to a race like the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) at the end of the Sydney autumn carnival.

And he's been buoyed by watching the likes of Another Wil and Jimmysstar win Group 1 races since they met Kimochi last spring.

What he’d like to see first is the four-year-old obviously run well but more importantly come through the Challenge Stakes in good order, which wasn’t quite the case after her first-up win in the spring.

“A number of the horses she beat have come out and won. Hopefully we can knock off a decent race this preparation,’’ he said.

“We’ll know more about where we are going after we see this weekend.

“Last preparation she won first-up and then it flattened her, she had a virus and a setback. She stretched herself and fought hard, it took out more than she let on.

“So that’s my thinking about giving her an easy 1000m first-up and we can build from there."

Portelli almost couldn’t watch the Liverpool City Cup last week after he had to scratch Encap from the race with a muscle enzyme issue.

It was the ideal kick off point for the four-year-old but Portelli said it was best for the horse not to run and while he faces a much harder task in the Group 1 $750,000 Toyota Forklifts Canterbury Stakes (1300m) he still has the Doncaster as a target.

“It was awful to watch because we knew exactly where he was going to be in the run,’’ he said.

Kimochi's trial at Rosehill on February 18

“We’ve got to start his prep off and get him going and we’ll path our way back to the Doncaster.

“It’s the run he needs to have to get him fit and racing and we’ll worry about next start.”

Missile Seeker kicks off the day for Portelli in the Midway Handicap (1600m) and he said being a backmarker he’ll be dictated to by the tempo of the race but expects he’ll be hitting the line strongly.

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