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By Ray Hickson

If you’d told anyone in the Gary Portelli stable back in September that the filly called Snitcat would still be a maiden come July they wouldn’t believe you.

James Fathers, racing manager for Gary Portelli. (Pic: Steve Hart).

But here she is, as the season nears its close, chasing an overdue breakthrough when she resumes in the Julie Harris Service Plate (1100m) at Kensington on Wednesday.

A $250,000 yearling, the daughter of Snitzel was regularly beating up on stablemate Sejardan in trackwork early on and would always work better than him. She certainly held the number one filly title in the stable at the start of the season.

Sejardan won a Breeders’ Plate, Golden Gift and Todman Stakes before contesting the Golden Slipper - of course won by their stablemate, star filly Fireburn - but she went to the paddock winless after five starts.

However, as Portelli’s racing manager James Fathers says, she achieved plenty in that first campaign with three placings from five starts, including a third in the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast in January, and hopes are high that the best is yet to come.

“It was intentional to miss the autumn,’’ Fathers said.

“We thought there was a lot of upside to her and she’d be really nice as a three-year-old.

“The Magic Millions was her fifth start so she’d been really busy and that’s why we gave her so much time off. We gave her the long break so she can have a really good prep this time through.”

Snitcat, $4.80 with TAB on Tuesday, has raced exclusively in open two-year-old or stakes company in her five starts so steps into a maiden for the first time at Kensington.

Fathers said the youngster has had a good grounding for a return, despite just the one public trial, and if she handles the heavy ground is expecting her to play a role in the finish hopeful it will springboard her into the early part of the carnival.

“On her form she’s a one-two chance,’’ he said.

“Plenty can go wrong but she’s in good order, she has a gun jockey in Brenton Avdulla on, the gun draw, a lot of ticks in her boxes.

“The trial on the poly looked impressive to the eye. She’s by Snitzel and his wet track stats aren’t too bad, she’s had a good gallop on the back of that trial and I think she is pretty fit.

“While there is room for improvement she should be fit enough to do herself justice.”

Snitcat has drawn the inside alley in the opening race while stablemate Adelaide’s Light has come up with an outside marble for his assignment in the Bowermans Handicap (1400m) to close the program.

If Kensington plays as it can, Fathers hopes by that stage of the day it’s a plus for the honest four-year-old who has continued to improve this time in.

“We’ve got him going well. He was doing a lot wrong early in the preparation, he was very strong, and we had to give him the run over 1000m first-up to get him to settle,’’ he said.

Snitcat runs second in a trial at Warwick Farm on July 6

“Then he went better at Canterbury then last start he looked unlucky not to nearly win.

“Now he’s setting well you can put him wherever you want in a race.”

Meanwhile, Golden Slipper winner Fireburn and stablemate Sejardan are scheduled to trial on August 12 at Rosehill.

They’ll have a second hitout about two weeks later and are set to clash first-up in the Group 2 Run To The Rose (1200m) on September 10.

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Kensington meeting