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MORNINGTON NEWS
Portland Sky heads to stud
G1 Colt: Portland Sky shares the Group One Oakleigh Plate win with Celebrity Queen. Picture: Supplied
HORSE RACING
By Ben Triandafillou MATT Laurie’s Group 1 winning colt Portland Sky has been retired and will head to Widden Stud next year. Laurie, who announced the news on Thursday 7 October, said he felt the now best-performed son of Deep Field wasn’t going to be able to perform at his very best moving forward. “His body just wasn’t going to allow him to showcase what he’s actually capable of, so we had to make the call,” he said. “We got to see a good glimpse of what he can do and if you got one like him every year or two you’d be over the moon, let alone get one in a lifetime.”
The now four-year-old colt, who was partially broken in and consistently ridden at trackwork by local Hastings woman Tahnee Jade, won his first start on the Ballarat synthetic (1000m) as an early three-year-old. He went on to finish off his four-start prep with a Group Three victory (1200m) at Moonee Valley. Portland Sky stamped himself as a stallion of the future by winning the Group One Oakleigh Plate (1100m) alongside Grant and Alana Williams’ Celebrity Queen in a tied finish in his second prep before backing it up with a runner-up placing in the Group One William Reid Stakes (1200m) at his next start. Laurie said he was thrilled to see the colt deliver on raceday after
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Clubs denied MPNFL spot FRANKSTON Dolphins FNC and Cranbourne FC will not be playing MPNFL football in 2022. The two clubs had applied to be admitted into the Mornington Peninsula competition. Cranbourne FC have previously tried to join the MPNFL, but have been unsuccessful. Before a meeting of the 22 MPNFL clubs last month, Cranbourne FC withdrew its application. The clubs took a vote on allowing Frankston Dolphins to enter, but the club did not gain
enough votes to secure its place. Although a majority of clubs voted to include the Dolphins in the competition, it did not secure the required 75 per cent of votes needed. The clubs also debated promoting Langwarrin and Mornington to Division One. The two clubs were the best performers in Division Two during the eventually cancelled 2021 season. The move to promote them was ultimately defeated.
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showing such early promise. “He was always a lovely horse right from the beginning, so we had high expectations and fortunately he lived up to them,” he said. “He had a great brain and was a beautiful horse to deal with.” Now with Widden Stud acquiring a new set-up in Victoria, Portland Sky has the potential to stand at either their Hunter Valley, NSW base or remain in Victoria. Laurie said it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll now perform at stud. “It’s anyone guess but he’s a very fast horse and a vert attractive horse,” he said. “He’s by a really sort after stallion in Deep Field so he looks a good alternative.”
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S Mornington News
12 October 2021
PAGE 23