Impressive debut winner Written By has signed himself up for a start in the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 24.
Jockey Jordan Childs, above, steered Written By to a debut win on the Ladbrokes Park Hillside track at Sandown. Photo by Adrienne Bicknell.
Trainer Grahame Begg sent Written By straight to the spelling paddock following his one length win for Jordan Childs in the $100,000 two year old Plate (1000m) on the Ladbrokes Park Hillside track at Sandown on December 2 before he starts his preparation for the 2018 Melbourne Autumn Carnival.
“We put him out in the paddock virtually straight after his run at Sandown,” Begg told racing.com.
“He’s getting prepared to run first-up in the Chairman’s on the third of February at Caulfield over 1000m.
“If he can shape up well in that, it’s three weeks into the Blue Diamond, and we’ll give him his shot.”
Begg has selected the Group 3 $150,000 Chairman’s Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield on February 3 as Written By’s lead up run into the Blue Diamond Stakes three weeks later.
The Group 1 winning trainer was very impressed with Written Tycoon colt’s win at his only start and said that it is the sign of a good horse to win at his first race day appearance.
“He always showed us good ability,” Begg said.
“It got to the stage with the track deteriorating; we were a bit unknown (heading into his debut) because he’d never galloped on any rain-affected surface.
“It’s a mark of a good horse, I feel, for any horse to win at their first start in a race, doesn’t matter where it is, they’re certainly better than average as they’re doing it on ability alone and not so much their education, so he got away with that.
“I believe the horses that ran second and third of McEvoy’s, he’s got a good opinion of, and they line up on Saturday in the Inglis race – so that’ll give us more of a benchmark for how we shape up going forward, so it’ll be exciting to see how they shape up in Sydney.”
The Tony McEvoy trained Sanctimonious and Logan River, who ran second and third to Written By at Sandown, are among the acceptances for the $500,000 Inglis Nursery (1000m) at Randwick on Saturday.
Both McEvoy’s youngsters were out of luck at the barrier draw for the Inglis Nursery with Logan River coming up with barrier twelve while Sanctimonious will have to jump from the extreme outside gate in the fourteen horse field.