Coolmore campaign on track
STAR colt Written By will have his first look at Flemington in a jumpout tomorrow week after his dominant display in yesterday’s Group 3 Blue Sapphire Stakes.
Trainer Grahame Begg said he had “left a little bit of juice in the orange”, but said the horse would peak at Flemington for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes on November 3.
That’s an ominous prospect for his rivals, as this year’s Blue Diamond winner has already built an impressive CV, with six wins in seven career starts.
“That’s his target, the Coolmore, in 2½ weeks,” Begg said of a colt who has already won $1.7 million in prizemoney and could set up a stud career.
Recent Coolmore winners Merchant Navy, Flying Artie, Zoustar and Brazen Beau have all found lucrative stud homes post racing.
“He’s about 90 per cent (fit) … he will have a jumpout up the straight on Friday week,” Begg said.
“He has got to have a workout somewhere, so we might as well take him, and give him a look at the straight, and he will be spot on for Coolmore day.”
Written By ($1.65) jumped awkwardly, but settled and controlled the tempo early.
He still had plenty in hand to fight off Encryption ($8) to win by 1½ lengths, with Tony Nicconi ($11) third.
Begg has long targeted the Coolmore Stud Stakes with Written By, having mapped out his campaign months ago.
He is convinced his son of I Am Invincible will handle the Flemington straight, and pre- dicted the Coolmore might not have a capacity field — as there was last year when Merchant Navy wove a passage through traffic to win.
“I don’t know where the horses are going to come from in the race because we had a small field today, and a lot of the horses that went to the mile races aren’t going to come back,” Begg said.
Jordan Childs, who has ridden the horse in all seven starts, said there was still some improvement left in the tank.