Blue Diamond Stakes winner Written By has kept his Golden Slipper Stakes chances alive with a hard fought win in the Group 3 $175,000 Café Culture + Insitu Pago Pago Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill today.
Written By, above, scores a tough win in the Pago Pago Stakes at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
Written By ($1.70 favourite) was having his first run since winning the Group 1 $1.5m Ladbrokes Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 24 and was tested by the runner up Sandbar ($19) over the final 250m.
Winning jockey Jordan Childs was able to let Written By find the lead in the early stages and dictate the race from the front and Sandbar made his move up the inside, the Written Tycoon colt was able to respond to record a neck win over the challenger with the Peter and Paul Snowden trained Spin ($5.50) filling third spot.
Bookies at Ladbrokes.com.au has firmed Written By into $5 to be the second favourite behind Sunlight at $3.60 for the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill next Saturday.
The Tony McEvoy trained Sunlight kept her spot at the top of the Golden Slipper Stakes market order with an equally impressive win forty minutes earlier in the Group 3 $175,000 Canadian Club Magic Night Stakes (1200m) for the fillies.
Winning trainer Grahame Begg was happy with the win today and said that Written By would now have an easy week on the tracks in the lead up to next weekend’s Golden Slipper Stakes.
“At least he can have an easy week the next seven days, we don’t have to do much with him and just cool his heels a bit,” Begg said.
“He is all quality this little bloke and he never knows how to sit down.”
“He has a little bit of improvement in him. He had a pretty soft week in relative in the way we normally train him because he is a tough little guy, he never leaves an oat at any stage.”
“Sometimes we have to work him on race day. So there is certainly a little bit more to come next week.”
“The second horse gave him a good race and he is a pretty fair horse. They ran a good time.”
“The horse is a very very talented horse.”
Written By ran the 1200m of the Pago Pago Stakes in 1.10.22 which was just over half a second faster than Sunlight’s time 1.10.74 in the Magic Night Stakes.
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