Champion bigger and stronger but Marsh steering away from war of words

Well Written's Karaka Millions win at Ellerslie was the performance of the season. Photo / Kenton Wright

WELL WRITTEN

Breeding: 3f Written Tycoon-Mozzie Monster.

Trainer: Stephen Marsh, Cambridge.

Jockey: Matt Cartwright all six starts.

Career record: Six starts, six wins, $2,615,625 in stakes.

Highlights: $4m NZB Kiwi (listed), $1.5m Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old (listed), $600,000 NZ 1000 Guineas (Group 1), $270,000 Jimmy Schick Shaws Auckland Guineas (Group 2), $175,000 Windsor Park Stud Soliloquy Stakes (Group 2).

Favourite for: New Zealand Horse of the Year title, awarded in September.

Trainer Stephen Marsh is adamant the unbeaten superstar of New Zealand racing is going to return bigger and better next season.

But he won’t be getting into any transtasman war of words over where Well Written sits in the 4-year-old pecking order when she does return to racing.

Well Written hasn’t raced since clinging on to win the $4 million NZB Kiwi at Ellerslie on March 7, her sixth win from as many starts.

Her other wins included the NZ 1000 Guineas at Riccarton at Group 1 level and the $1.5m Karaka Millions Three-Year-Old, the latter by six lengths, which had plenty of fans on both sides of the Tasman pulling out the “next Winx” card.

Well Written has, through no fault of her own, subsequently been replaced as the “next Winx” by exceptional Australian 3-year-old filly Sheza Alibi who thrashed her older rivals in the Doncaster at Randwick on April 4 in the style of a budding champion.

While both fillies have a long way to go to actually belong in the same sentence as Winx they are now linked by their Winx-ness but more importantly their major aim for the spring, the A$10m Golden Eagle at Randwick on October 31.

Such is the deserved fervour about Sheze Alibi across the Tasman now if Marsh dare suggest Well Written can beat her he might need to stay off social media for the next year or so but the Cambridge trainer is too smart for that.

“We aren’t really thinking about just one race and definitely not just one rival,” says Marsh.

“There is a lot of water to go under the bridge before any horse gets to the Golden Eagle, if at all, and we have a whole range of things to go through before that becomes a real thing.

“We all saw Sheza Alibi in Sydney and she looked amazing but we won’t be planning any races to start in, or miss, because she will or won’t be there.

“We will just get our filly back and do what is right for her and while the Golden Eagle is a great race to aim at we will take her [Well Written] one race at a time.”

While Marsh has no idea what the back end of 2026 holds for Well Written he knows what he sees and that is a far stronger Well Written as she prepares to return to the stable.

“She will be back here toward the end of the month,” says Marsh of the Horse of the Year in waiting.

“But I saw her two weeks ago and you wouldn’t believe she was the same filly.

“She is bigger but definitely stronger and has filled out.

“It was really pleasing to see because as good as she was this season we wanted to see her fill out and mature and she has definitely done that.”

When Well Written returns to the Marsh stable in a few weeks, she has three months inside their system before her likely 4-year-old debut in the first leg of the Triple Crown set for Ellerslie on September 5.

While the dates calendar has yet to be confirmed for next season it is widely expected the first Group 1 of the season, the 1400m weight-for-race held as the Proisir Plate this season, will be at Ellerslie with the final two legs of the spring Triple Crown back at Hastings if that track’s return to racing goes smoothly.

That would suit Marsh perfectly as Well Written is eligible for a $500,000 bonus if she is the first NZB Kiwi runner from this season to win a New Zealand Group 1 next term.

Considering her form at Ellerslie, the StrathAyr surface, the 1400m being an almost perfect distance and the advantages weight-for-age would afford her it is hard to imagine a more perfect scenario for Well Written to chase that bonus should she be a healthy and happy horse in early September.

Stablemate and current Horse of the Year El Vencedor is also still spelling but will rejoin the stable soon after a lengthy spell.

While Well Written could have an Ellerslie date in early September, Marsh will head there this Saturday with a good-sized team as he tries to take advantage of better track conditions before winter arrives.

“We still have some nice horses going around and we also had a really promising trial winner at Avondale on Tuesday called Fatal Affair,” says Marsh.

“She is a daughter of Home Affairs we like and she will make her debut at Ellerslie on May 23.”

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.