Star colt Written By took that important next step towards his ultimate spring goal at Flemington when he won the Blue Sapphire Stakes at Caulfield on Wednesday, but there remains one missing piece to his so-far faultless campaign.
The $350,000 Group 3 was at Written By's mercy as he was meeting fellow three-year-olds at level weights at a course where he had not been beaten in three previous starts, but there are some lingering doubts still about his next and major spring run in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on November 3.
Trainer Grahame Begg, who has won some of Flemington's great straight sprints with his former star All Silent, has been keen to get Written By to Headquarters for some reconnaissance purposes as he prepares for the $1 million stallion-making sprint won last year by the eventual international winner Merchant Navy.
So far he has been unable to, so the trainer will take the final chance to show his colt the straight course in a trial up the straight on Friday week.
"Having to have a jumpout in between (runs) is not ideal backing up and having a jumpout in nine days' time but I guess we won't need to do much work with him after that leading into the race," Begg explained.
"We were trying to factor it (look at Flemington) in earlier like before he even had his first-up run and I half suspected that would be the case a couple of months ago.
"It would be nice to get that under his belt just to have a look.
"He's got to have a workout somewhere so we might as well take him there and give him a look at the straight and he'll be spot-on for Coolmore day."
Written By led throughout in the Blue Sapphire at odds of $1.65. He held a narrow margin over Tony Nicconi ($11) to the turn and then skipped away from that horse before holding Godolphin's challenger Encryption ($8) to win by a length-and-a-quarter, with two-and-three-quarter lengths to Tony Nicconi in third place.
Written By was able to dominate Wednesday's race - where he had just five rivals - from the front but Begg is not certain that will be the way to ride the horse at Flemington.
"It would nice to see him get a sit one day but circumstances haven't allowed him," Begg said. "But he sat behind them in the Blue Diamond even though he was wide but when he gets a dead-set camp on him I reckon he'll really let down."
Begg said he was pleased with the horse's Blue Sapphire effort where he used his speed to outgun his rivals.
"He's got a very high cruising speed and I said to Jordy (Jordan Childs) before the race to use it to your advantage as he drew well. Don't be sort of trying to drag him around," he said.
"That's his ability to kick off a good speed and put it away."
Begg figured Written By was closer to his peak than he was when first-up at Caulfield last month.
"I thought he was about 80-85 per cent right first-up and I think he's about 90 (per cent) now. (We've) just left a bit of juice in the orange."
Begg said the colt was making big strides maturity-wise this spring.
"He's starting to get a bit of a neck on him and he's thickening up and growing into a man," he said.
James Cummings said the on-pace dominance of the race did not play into the hands of his Danehill Stakes winner Encryption, who had a month between runs.
"He's run really well," Cummings said. "It wasn't run to suit horses back in the field as they ran at a really sedate tempo but the winner was very good and I thought Encryption's effort was excellent.
"Provided that we're happy with him, we'll push onto the Coolmore with a bit of confidence there is more improvement in him too.
"He's got a lot of speed this colt and he's got an even bigger (pedigree) page so if he can just take that fraction of improvement out of the Blue Sapphire today and get up in the Coolmore, it would be a huge result for the farm and I am sure his highness Sheik Mohammed would be pretty excited having a stallion-potential colt lining up in a race that is building in prestige as the stallion-making race."
