Star filly Well Written (Written By) will enjoy a well-deserved break after her narrow triumph in the $4 million NZB Kiwi (1500m) at Ellerslie on Saturday, with an Australian autumn campaign ruled out.
The Stephen Marsh-trained three-year-old has gone undefeated in her sparkling six-start career, but gave favourite backers heart palpations when quality filly Belle Cheval went within a whisker of an almighty upset on Saturday.
“It’s a lot for a filly like her,” Marsh said. “She’s six runs deep, she has been down south, she has done an amazing job and she deserves the paddock now.
“Everyone said go to the Doncaster (Gr.1, 1600m), you’ve got 50 kilos. But it’s just greedy and we certainly won’t be doing that.
“It’s been a pretty long campaign when you look at what she’s done and where she’s come from as a younger horse. She has come a hell of a long way.
“Even Glen Boss said yesterday when he looked at her in the birdcage ‘if she wins today she is a star’, she is tall, she is leggy, she is not a mature filly yet.
“She is six from six but it’s difficult to peak them so many times.
“She has been to Riccarton, the Karaka 3YO Mile, and then carried 58 kilos to win the Kiwi.
“People don’t realise they weigh out at 59, which as a three-year-old filly is a lot of weight and I think she got to the front very early and that is not being critical of the ride. She got the job done but it is hard for them.
“She was beaten but she dug very deep and if you watch them past the line they still never got past her, she was still tough and diligent and she will have a very good spell.”
A daughter of Written Tycoon, Well Written was sold through Brighthill Farm’s 2024 New Zealand Bloodstock National Online Yearling Sale on Gavelhouse Plus where she was purchased by Marsh and Dylan Johnson Bloodstock for $80,000.
With in excess of $2.6 million in stake earnings to date, Well Written’s three-year-old season has included victories in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m), $1.5 million Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m), Gr.2 Auckland Guineas (1400m), Gr.2 Soliloquy Stakes (1400m), in addition to the NZB Kiwi.