Testa shadows his rivals at Rosehill

Gary Portelli is always happy to win but Testashadow's latest victory poses a few problems for the trainer.

Portelli says he will now have to raise the bar for the five-year-old, whose benchmark rating will rise to the 90s after his win in the Spring Preview (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday.

With the advantage of Deanne Panya's 3kg claim reducing his weight to 51kg, the $4 favourite camped on the leader Oxford Poet ($4.80).

He surged to the front inside the 200m and went on to beat Sadler's Lake ($14) by a length, with Oxford Poet a short half-head in third.

"I'm not sure where we go now as his rating will go up," Portelli said.

"The idea is to get him to the Magic Millions again in January.

"The 1800-metre race there is worth a lot of money.

"But we have to plan where to go to get there.

"He has been a great horse for the owners. He hasn't won that many races but he's won almost $600,000."

Portelli also took time to acknowledge the contribution made by apprentice Samantha Clenton, who is expected to get a medical clearance next week after three months on the sidelines due to injury.

"Samantha turned him around last preparation," he said.

"She got him jumping out of the gates cleanly and won three races on him.

"And it was a great ride today by Deanne. We discussed before the race that the best place to be was outside Oxford Poet, and in the end it was effortless."