00:00Along with a legion of two-year-olds preparing to make their debuts in the coming months,
00:08one horse that trainer Donnika O'Brien is looking forward to having back in action is
00:11Group 1 winner Porta Fortuna.
00:14The filly was last seen running second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf,
00:18and she's now preparing for the upcoming 1,000 guineas.
00:23Porta Fortuna has developed very well over the winter, I'm very happy where she is.
00:29She came out of the Breeders' Cup very well, we gave her a little break for the winter.
00:33She got bigger, she got stronger, she was always quite a long filly, not very tall.
00:39We think she's grown a little bit, she's filled into her frame a little bit.
00:42I think she's more mature mentally as well.
00:44We'll see how the guineas goes, we're still not 100% sure what her trip's going to be,
00:49but I think she's bred to stay a mile.
00:50Depending on how that goes, we'll probably go to Ascot, whether it be for the carnation
00:54or possibly back to the Commonwealth if we feel she hasn't really stayed in the guineas.
00:59The ownership group is Medallion Racing, Steve Weston, Dean Reeves and Barry Fowler.
01:06Obviously her ownership group is mainly American, so you'd have to think if she had a good season
01:11she'd probably end up in the US at some stage, either for Breeders' Cup or maybe something
01:17different before.
01:18For a filly to have two wins before Ascot, go and win in Ascot, and then remain at such
01:24a high level throughout the year, and finish so strongly in the Breeders' Cup, it's a very
01:28hard thing for a filly to do, to have that many races and have that long a year.
01:33Her best two performances were arguably her last two races, so she's a super tough, consistent
01:38filly and we're really lucky to have her in the yard.
01:42We have four two-year-old fillies this year for Port of Fortuna's ownership group with
01:48Medallion Racing, and there's different partners including Port of Fortuna's half-sister, which
01:53they bought at Tattersalls, with Coolmore, so it's fantastic for us that they came and
01:59reinvested and we're super appreciative of all of them and their support.
02:05The last few years we've been trying to get more owners into the yard, and obviously with
02:09fillies like Porta that makes it easier to have a few Group 1 winners.
02:14I believe she's the first Group 1 winner I've had outside of Coolmore ownership.
02:19Our goal is to grow slowly, I suppose not to go too quick because you have to make sure
02:24we have the right people and facilities to be able to deal with the numbers of horses.
02:29We have about 45 to 50 two-year-olds overall, so a nice mix of some earlier types and some
02:35later types, some that'll be better at three, so our biggest crop of horses, and grow in
02:42terms of quality as well, which is important.
02:44So we're hoping to grow slowly, I don't ever see myself having 250, 300 horses or that
02:50kind of numbers, but I'm hoping to gradually grow and we'll see where that takes us.
02:56It's a fantastic facility we have here at Bonmore, very lucky to have it, obviously
03:01David Watson used to train here and then set up pretty much the groundwork and the basics,
03:08the gallop and the yards.
03:09It's one of the best training facilities that I've seen, obviously, and would have seen
03:14a lot of places around the world, so we're lucky to have it, and yeah, it's fantastic
03:19and now we have to make sure we're able to use it properly to get the best out of the horses.
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