Written By puts Neville Begg within reach of rare Golden Slipper feat
RACING legend Neville Begg might be about to become only the second person to breed, own and train a Golden Slipper winner after Written By’s tough win at Rosehill Gardens.
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RACING legend Neville Begg might be about to become only the second person to breed, own and train a Golden Slipper winner after Written By’s tough win at Rosehill Gardens yesterday.
A former champion trainer, Begg is the breeder and owner of unbeaten Written By, a narrow but determined winner of the Group 3 $175,000 Pago Pago Stakes (1200m).
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During his training career, Begg also prepared a Golden Slipper winner with Dark Eclipse in 1980. The only other person to breed, own and train the winner of the Golden Slipper was one of Begg’s training contemporaries, Tommy Smith, with Bounding Away in 1986.
Begg said Written By, who is trained by the owner’s son, Grahame, is right on target for the $3.5 million Longines Golden Slipper at Rosehill next Saturday.
“Written By was very tradesmanlike, I thought it was a very good effort,’’ Hall of Famer Neville Begg said.
“It wasn’t our preference to run today when they moved the trials because of the heavy track last Tuesday, Grahame thought it was best to run on the good surface (Saturday).
“He will improve for the Golden Slipper, too. He has done very, very well since he has been here. He never takes his head out of the feed bin.
“I think he is going to be there in the Slipper and so will the filly, Sunlight. She was good today, she jumped and made her own speed. She’s a big, strong filly.’’
Unbeaten Written By ($1.70 favourite) led throughout but had to work hard to ward off the determined challenge of Sandbar ($19) to win by a half neck with Spin ($5.50) nearly four lengths away third.
Written By ran the 1200m in 1m 10.22s (last 600m in 34.39s) compared to Sunlight’s 1m 10.74s (last 600m in 35.27s).
TAB Fixed Odds price assessors adjusted Golden Slipper betting after both juvenile races with Written By firming from $7 to $5 second favouritism behind Sunlight $3.50 (in from $4).
Trainer Grahame Begg maintains Written By will be better for the run going into the Golden Slipper.
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“Written By’s got a little bit of improvement left in him,’’ Grahame Begg said.
“He had a pretty soft week compared to how we usually train him. He is a tough little guy who never leaves an oat. Sometimes we have to work him on raceday. There is certainly a little bit more to come for next week.”
Written By, who scored his fourth win from as many starts, is now on target to become only the sixth to complete the Blue Diamond Stakes-Golden Slipper double after John’s Hope (1972), Manikato (1978), Bounding Away (1986), Courtza (1989) and Sepoy (2011).
Grahame Begg, who formerly trained out of Randwick but has a stable base on the Mornington Peninsula these days, said: “It is always good to come home and win a race.’’
“Written By is all quality, this little bloke never knows how to sit down. He is a very, very talented horse. The second horse (Sandbar) gave him a good race and they’ve run good time.’’
Sandbar’s narrow loss left him only 19th on Golden Slipper order of entry. Owner Damion Flower remains hopeful his colt can squeeze into the elite 16-horse field for next week’s race.
"I thought I had the winner covered at about the 100m."
— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) March 17, 2018
All the jockey quotes from the Pago Pago Stakes!
READ: https://t.co/372BeIrtTA
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