Target: A$1.5 million ($1.85m) Epsom at Randwick on Saturday at 7.10pm (NZ time)
New: Sydney jockey Zac Lloyd will ride her for the first time this Saturday.
Odds: TAB opened her at
$5 second favourite but she was heavily backed into $3.80 by Wednesday night.
Well Written has only had to touch down in Australia to start a huge move in the market for Saturday’s A$1.5 million ($1.85m) Epsom at Randwick.
The unbeaten New Zealand Horse of the Year arrived in Sydney on Tuesday night in faultless condition after being transported from trainer Stephen Marsh’s Cambridge stables to Auckland Airport, then flown to Sydney.
“It is unbelievable how well she has travelled,” Marsh told the Herald.
“Often when they travel you can see they have had a sweat at some stage, which is understandable, but when she got off the transporter at the stables she didn’t have a drop on her.
“She couldn’t have travelled any better and was out having a canter this morning [Wednesday].”
While Well Written was at one stage the Futures favourite for the Epsom, she lost that honour to Autumn Boy last week when it became apparent the Chris Waller-trained 4-year-old was returning from Victoria to Sydney to start in Saturday’s Group 1 over 1600m.
Autumn Boy retained that favouritism after drawing barrier 1 on Tuesday but since then the money has come for Well Written, who will start from barrier 3.
After being $5 with the New Zealand TAB on Tuesday night she was into $3.80 equal favouritism with Autumn Boy on Wednesday afternoon.
The New Zealand TAB is often in the position of keeping a leading New Zealand horse tighter than Australian bookmakers knowing parochialism, media coverage and sheer name recognition will drive punters towards a horse like Well Written.
But the move for the unbeaten 4-year-old mare has been on both sides of the Tasman and she is also a huge shortener and close to favouritism on Wednesday with the major Australian bookmakers, even though Kiwi punters can’t bet with them.
So put simply, it has been a genuine move in a major race market, rather than any fear of the New Zealand-based Well Written fan base causing a Trans Tasman avalanche.
With his stable star happy and settled at Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s Randwick stable Marsh has only one major worry between now and the 7.10pm (NZ time) start on Saturday.
“There are a few people here telling me we might get more rain than expected on Friday, even though the weather is beautiful and hot here today,” says Marsh.
“Obviously all her form is on a good or at worst Soft 5 tracks so we’d love the rain to stay away and the better the track the happier we will be.”
While Well Written’s arrival got plenty of media attention in Australia, which would have contributed to her shortening in the market, it would be surprising if she starts favourite in the Epsom with Autumn Boy set to cop the James McDonald tax that goes with so many big-race favourites in Sydney, or anywhere else in Australia for that matter.
Meanwhile, Marsh has confirmed that his two high-class gallopers who finished unplaced in the Howden Insurance Mile at Hastings on Saturday will head in different directions.
El Vencedor, who led and faded in his return race, will be set for the $150,000 Balmerino Stakes at Ellerslie on November 3 with a lead-up race likely, while Media World didn’t see out last Saturday’s 1600m so will return to Hastings on October 10 but drop back to 1400m.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
