Have we just seen New Zealand racing’s next superstar filly in Well Written?

Matt Cartwright gives a standing salute as Well Written turns the NZ 1000 Guineas into a one-filly race. Photo / Kenton Wright

New Zealand racing’s summer sweetheart has arrived.

Her name is Well Written and the wild part of her demolition job in the $600,000 Barneswood Farm NZ 1000 Guineas at Riccarton on Saturday is it feels like she is only just scratching the surface of what she could become.

At start three the daughter of Written Tycoon overcame some pre-race nervous energy to smash her opponents in the Group 1.

She sat in the one-one for jockey Matt Cartwright, who at the top of the long Riccarton straight told himself to count to 10 before he pushed the button, not wanting to be the guy who went too early and cost himself the Guineas.

Cartwright got to six.

Well Written soon put the result to rest as she cruised past her rivals and when Cartwright pulled the whip from the left side to his right to keep her mind on the job it deployed the turbo button.

She went faster, which came with speed wobbles as she ran down to the rail, where few of Saturday’s winners came from.

In reality, it wouldn’t have mattered if she had run into quicksand; Well Written is the real deal.

She has the most sought-after of gifts from the Racing Gods: speed.

Purchased for $80,000 at a New Zealand Bloodstock online yearling sale by trainer Stephen Marsh and his friend, and seemingly even better judge, Dylan Johnson, Well Written was sold to a large group of owners, who in turn sold half their shares to global racing giant Yulong last week.

If New Zealand Racing bosses could name an ownership group to come into New Zealand racing and get a genuine superstar, Yulong would be near the top of their list.

Administrators here will be hoping what happened on Saturday whets Yulong’s appetite to see more horses in their green and white colours racing in New Zealand.

What could help that and give New Zealand racing, and most specifically Ellerslie, their pin-up girl for this summer is a plan hatched when that half share was sold.

The deal was that Well Written is to be trained by Marsh her whole career and the Cambridge trainer has two obvious Ellerslie goals for the new glamour girl: the $1.5 million NZB Karaka Million Three-Year-Old on January 24 and the $4m NZB Kiwi on March 7.

While many high-class New Zealand gallopers who get new Australian-based owners often head for the best races on the other side of the Tasman, Well Written is better staying here.
Australian racing’s spring carnivals are ending and its really serious stuff doesn’t start again until March.

By then Well Written could have raced in, and quite possibly won, nearly $6m worth of races at home.

Then and only then does she need to go hunting for an Australian Group 1 to put an exclamation mark on her career.

And even that doesn’t matter as much as it usually would for a Kiwi horse because the people who buy the most trophy mares at broodmare sales are Yulong and they already own half of her.

It is, of course, a bit early to be predicting Australasian domination for Well Written, plenty of fillies have been spring sensations and wilted with the autumn leaves, but the last filly to win the 1000 Guineas with the ferociousness of Well Written was Legarto and she went on to win the Australian Guineas.

Two races earlier on Saturday, last season’s 1000 Guineas winner Captured By Love returned to the winner’s circle after the Windsor Park Breeders Stakes, relishing being back on Riccarton’s wide expanses, especially going left-handed.

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.