Mother Goose carves a little piece of Australian Racing history as Godolphin's first Midway runner and winner - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

“I was absolutely stunned to receive a phone call from Godolphin headquarters in the middle of last year to inform me that I was one of several people being considered for a spot on the new training team,” recalled Gary Portelli. “I tried not to get too excited when I was put on standby for a possible face to face meeting. To be honest I didn’t expect it to go much further. True to its professional reputation Godolphin did invite me to a meeting a week or so later with Andy Makiv and Jason Walsh, who confirmed that twenty three horses would be coming to my stable. It was obviously a great honour and an even greater challenge to become one of the “new nine” in the wake of James Cummings’ resignation.”

Memories of that life changing meeting flooded back to Gary on Saturday as he parked himself in front of a television monitor at the Gold Coast racetrack to watch Mother Goose tackle the Rosehill Midway - Godolphin’s first Midway runner under new rules adopted by Racing NSW following James Cummings’ departure. Like many other Sydney trainers Gary had a presence at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale through the week and joined the massive crowd at Saturday’s Magic Millions race day.

The scene at Rosehill Gardens was a bleak one as start time loomed for the Midway. Heavy rain was falling intermittently, a shroud of fog had closed in and the track had already received one downgrade. Mother Goose fairly flew the gates and could have led with ease but jockey Alysha Collett was happy to take hold when Zoutastic sped through on her inside. Joining the course proper Collett had Mother Goose travelling sweetly at the leader’s girth with Tequila Baby prominent on the inside of Let’s Go Again with Cryptonic, Art Volant and Apache Breeze not far away. Zoutastic and Mother Goose were five or six horses away from the fence on straightening, where Alysha Collett opted to use her mount’s turn of foot. Mother Goose quickly established a break before comfortably holding Apache Breeze in the closing stages to give Godolphin a maiden Midway. Gary Portelli was the recipient of many backslaps in a hospitality marquee on the Gold Coast.

Alysha Collett rode Mother Goose very positively in the Midway resulting in a win over Apache Breeze - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

Mother Goose had only five starts for James Cummings which included a maiden win at Kembla Grange in May of last year. She’d had a long spell and had actually begun her pre-training before arriving in the Portelli stables early in the new season. The first thing to impress her new trainer was a very stylish pedigree. She’s a daughter of former champion Lonhro from Maternal, a Street Cry mare who won six races including the black type Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich. Even better was the profile of her second dam, the brilliant Divine Madonna (Hurricane Sky) whose eight wins included four at Gr 1 level propelling her to a prize money tally of $2 million.

Following two quiet barrier trials Mother Goose resumed with a second in a Cl 1 at Wyong at the end of October. She followed up with a third at Canterbury and a fourth on the Kensington track, and as it turned out the mare needed each of those three runs. She opened her account for the new stable with a BM72 win at Canterbury in mid December before stepping up to BM78 class over 1200m at Randwick. After being pestered in front from the outset Mother Goose looked the winner inside the 200m before being gunned down late by the talented Super Norwest. It was a very fit Mother Goose who lined up in Saturday’s Midway to get the job done in convincing fashion and to give Portelli his fourth win to date under the Godolphin banner. Apart from Mother Goose’s two city wins Gary has produced Tong Ho to win at Hawkesbury in late October, and Jaegers whose Canterbury win a few weeks later was very impressive.

Mother Goose's first win for new trainer Gary Portelli - a BM72 at Canterbury 12/12/2025 with Tommy Berry on board - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

The trainer is currently trying to suppress his excitement about a certain three year old colt he has in the stable. His expectations are fuelled by the fact that Kilbrannan happens to be a half brother to that dynamic filly Fireburn whose six wins included the Golden Slipper and ATC Sires Produce Stakes of 2022. Another of his half siblings is Kintyre who already has Gr 3 Frank Packer Plate and Gr 2 Queensland Guineas wins on his CV. Fireburn was subsequently sold to Japan while Kintyre is back in work with a Queensland campaign very likely in the winter months. Kilbrannan, like Fireburn and Kintyre carries the colours of Laurel Oak syndicates continuing an association the trainer holds near and dear.

Kilbrannan is by the successful Pierata whose star is rising rapidly. He’s the third foal of Mull Over (So You Think) a mare purchased for $22,000 by Laurel Oak simply to give their retiring stallion Rebel Dane some semblance of a book in his first year at stud. The slow maturing Kilbrannan showed little in three late season 2YO races before going to the paddock. He resumed with a fair fifth in maiden company at Gosford on November 11th and that outing obviously turned on the switch. The colt started to pull in his work and Gary took immediate steps to prevent this from becoming a problem in his races.

At Newcastle on December 11th he asked Ashley Morgan to allow Kilbrannan to drop to the tail of the field in a seven horse maiden over 1300m. The colt travelled fairly generously and knew it was “game on” when switched to the outside on straightening. He swamped the leaders late to score the easiest of wins. There were many curious observers on course and at home when Kilbrannan stepped out eleven days later for a 1400m BM64 at Kembla Grange with Siena Grima claiming 2kgs. Gary Portelli takes up the story. “I warned Siena about his tendency to pull and stressed that I wanted her to let him begin under his own steam and to just drop over his neck in the early stages.

“I got the shock of my life to see him tailed off twenty lengths from the leaders on the first turn and at least six lengths behind the second last horse. He hadn’t improved much by the hometurn and looked a thousand to one on straightening. Course broadcaster Luke Marlow summed it up when he said the horse would need to be Bernborough. At the 200m I thought he might run on into fourth or fifth spot, when he suddenly took off. He just swamped the others and was going away on the line to win by a length. Not top opposition I know, but they just don’t do what he did. Long way to go yet but we’re looking at the Randwick Guineas as his immediate goal and we’ll go from there.”

Kilbrannan (Siena Grima) set the tongues wagging with an amazing last to first win at Kembla just before Christmas - courtesy Bradley Photographers.

Gary hasn’t given up on Encap’s prospects of winning a race at the elite level. Despite having won only two races from twenty six starts, the gelding has registered nine placings and banked over $1.4 million dollars. One of his two wins was the Gr 3 Ming Dynasty Quality, the other the Gr 2 Theo Marks Stakes. Encap’s placings include a second to Militarise in the Gr 1 Golden Rose and a slashing third to Stefi Magnetica and Royal Patronage in this year’s Doncaster. After being held up in the straight he was charging on the line to finish only a neck from the winner. Gary regards this as “the one that got away.” The experienced trainer feels the son of Capitalist will be an ideal candidate for some of the bigger races in Brisbane during the winter.

Gary Portelli’s year began on a high note just two weeks ago when he married partner Renae Dorney in a charming ceremony at Berrima on the NSW Southern Highlands. He light-heartedly declares that last week’s sojourn at the Magic Millions festivities had to double as a honeymoon. He did however leave the sale with a definite spring in the step when it was confirmed that eight yearlings from this year’s auction will find their way to his Warwick Farm stables.

Gary was especially chuffed to acquire a picture perfect colt by “the sire of the sale” Anamoe from French bred mare Libre A Vous, making him a half brother to his promising filly Queen Of Clubs who is Oaks bound during the autumn. “We had to go to $450,000 for this Anamoe lookalike, but we’ve already had great interest from stable clients,” said the trainer. “Some very astute horsemen are of the opinion Anamoe can’t miss as a top grade stallion. I’ve got 450,000 reasons to hope they’re right.”

MOTHER GOOSE PUTS GODOLPHIN ON THE BOARD IN THE MIDWAYS

PETTICOAT GAVE HER OPPOSITION THE SLIP AT WYONG