Jonathan Portman has trained over 600 winners across all different codes and disciplines, but a Group 1 continues to elude him. Portman, based at Whitcombe House Stables in Lambourn, has trained many a smart one from his Lambourn based yard including a second with King Of Sparta at the Cheltenham Festival.
His accolades include a Royal Ascot winner with Annecdote in 2013, subsequently a Group 3 winner. Portman has won the Group Cornwallis Stakes on three occasions, latterly with Rumstar who will be his sole Ascot contender this week as he lines up in the King Charles III Stakes.
Portman told the Racing Post: “All my friends, who I started in this business with, seem to have Group 1 winners and I’m the only one who hasn’t. So I’d quite like to join their club before I’m too much older. It would be amazing to win it – I certainly don’t want to wait another 28 years! I think Rumstar deserves to win at a higher level and it’s something we all want rather badly.”
Discussing the emotions attached to winning in such illustrious company, Portman said: “I don’t think you’re meant to enjoy preparing any horse for this sort of level. just want everything to go right. But I know I’d enjoy going there the next day if people were patting me on the back and saying, ‘You’ve just won a Group 1’.”
“We’ve kept him fresh from Newmarket” – Jonathan Portman
The Havana Grey gelding failed to fire in this race last season, but he was a credible fifth in the 2023 Commonwealth Cup. He came up short in Group 1 company twice after Ascot last season, albeit close in the Nunthorpe, but Portman believes keeping him fresh this time is the key.
“We’re very pleased with his condition and demeanour” said Portman. “We’ve kept him fresh from Newmarket and, at the minute, we’re delighted with him. You never know until you get there, but he seems to be in a good place at the moment.
“It was a fantastic comeback and he ran as well in defeat as he had done when winning the same race the previous year. It was just unfortunate he had to come off his intended line briefly, which was probably the half a length he was beaten in the Palace House. But the winner [has franked the form since.”
Rumstar will need plenty of luck for things to fall right for him and gain Portman his first Group 1. The market is fascinatingly headed by Australian raider Overpass, a two time Group 1 winner. He was just a length behind the world’s best sprinter Ka Ying Rising four starts back, and that form alone suggests he could take some serious stopping.