Portonian purrs for ex-Cat

In-form Bunbury galloper Portonian extended his golden run at the Mt Barker Turf Club, scoring an easy victory in last Thursday’s Narpanup Handicap (1300m) to keep his perfect record at the track intact.

Trained by former Geelong and South Fremantle footballer Mark Bairstow, Portonion won at Mt Barker back in February and then returned earlier this month to down Fairly Hot over 1300m.

Searching for back-to-back wins, the seven-year-old started a $2.30 favourite in the field of 10 last week and settled midfield for jockey Jason Whiting.

Whiting guided Portonion to the outside as they turned into the home straight and he quickly gobbled up his rivals, booting clear in the final 100m to defeat Multimagic by 2 ½ lengths.

The Testa Rossa gelding has now won all three starts at the MBTC and promoted Bairstow to nominate him again for this Thursday’s meeting.

“He is racing well enough to win another one of them (58-plus races),” Bairstow said.

“He showed a lot of promise as a three-year-old for Simon Miller but he’s taken a long time to get back and that’s not saying he’s back to that level but he is racing with great heart.

“He’s got to be placed in the right races and he came away from them today, I thought.”

The consistent sprinter has now won seven of his 37 career starts for $124,615 in prize money.

Meanwhile, Roy Rogers is the leader of the Great Southern trainers’ premiership after recording a winning double early in the seven-race card.

Gutsy sprinter Potent Secret defied carrying 63kg to comfortably win the Perillup Handicap (1200m) by a length with Ben Kennedy in the saddle, his second straight win at Mt Barker.

Rogers confirmed he would nominate the six-year-old speedster for the $100,000 R.S Crawford Stakes (1000m) on December 10 at Ascot.

Kennedy and Rogers then teamed up in the Woogenellup Maiden (1100m) to get Money Trainer across the line by a short half-head. Rogers has five wins to sit on top of the standings ahead of defending titleholder Steve Wolfe and Bairstow (three wins).