Karaka Millions: Well Written stays perfect to raise plenty of questions at Ellerslie

Well Written and Matt Cartwright demolished their rivals at Ellerslie on Saturday. Photo / Kenton Wright

After the great Karaka Millions demolition came the questions.
There are usually questions when the human brain can’t quite compute what it has just seen.

What those at Ellerslie, and the hundreds of thousands watching on television, had just seen was Well Written breaking rules and hearts in the $1.5 million 3-year-olds’ race on Saturday night.

Unbeaten and a red-hot favourite heading into the contest, Well Written found herself in an awkward spot midfield on the outer rounding the home bend, horses to her outside and equine behinds in front blocking her path to the winner’s circle.

But when the gap came, jockey Matt Cartwright leaned on the left rein and Well Written exploded.

She took aim at leader He Who Dares, ran him down for fun and then with each magnificent stride she took thereafter, she got further in front.

The roar of the crowd soon turned to shocked silence and head-shaking among industry insiders. The common question: “How good is she?”

Some suggested Well Written may be the best they have seen.

That possibly depends on how many horses you have seen and recency bias is never far away on a racetrack full of happy punters.

But she is very, very good, with maybe the most important chapters of her story still to be written (excuse the pun).

Trainer Stephen Marsh will now aim his darling at the $4 million NZB Kiwi, which raised the other questions on everybody’s mind:

How will they beat her in the Kiwi?

What will she pay in that?

Will any Aussie trainers want to bring horses over to take her on?

Those questions don’t have answers yet, but Marsh did confirm he won’t start Well Written again before the mega-money slot race back at Ellerslie on March 7.

If you like witnessing potential greatness, then get your tickets quick, because Well Written may not have many more starts in New Zealand after that.

She is staying in Marsh’s stable regardless of how great she may become, but in reality she can race for $1m almost every start in Australia and often much more.

While Saturday’s race was 1600m, Well Written is so naturally fast it wouldn’t surprise if she gets invited to the A$20m Everest in Sydney with her co-owners Yulong already having a slot.

Questions, questions, questions.

Questions for after-parties and Saturday night bars, sales-day Sundays and the weeks and months ahead.

But the answer to the most important question is simple: we just don’t know how good Well Written really is yet.

It is going to be fun finding out.

Following her triumph, the Aussie summer of glory in New Zealand racing continued when Jigsaw led home a Victorian quinella in the $700,000 Sistema Railway to wrap up Saturday’s glamour card.

The Cindy Alderson-trained galloper sat outside leader Alabama Lass and cruised past her at the 300m mark before holding out Arkansaw Kid to add another Australian major race win to those of Dream Roca earlier on Saturday and Kingswood in the Zabeel Classic on Boxing Day.

It was a no-argument performance and capped a stunning return home for expat apprentice jockey Logan Bates, who rode Jigsaw.

Bates, born in the South Island, punched the air as he rode a Group One winner with his parents, both jockeys, watching on.

It does not bode well for what lies ahead for the locals in the next domestic Group One sprint, the BCD Sprint at Te Rapa on February 7.

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.