Booked: Outstanding Sydney-based jockey Zac Lloyd has been confirmed to ride Well Written.
Markets: Autumn Boy is the $3.50 TAB favourite ahead of Well Written at $4.20.
The
young gun of the Sydney riding ranks has been booked to partner New Zealand racing’s sweetheart, Well Written, in her Sydney debut next month.
Zac Lloyd will ride the unbeaten Cambridge mare when she makes her Australian debut in the A$1.5 million Epsom Handicap at Randwick on October 3.
Well Written lost early favouritism for the Epsom on Monday when the weights for the 1600m Group 1 were declared by the Racing New South Wales handicapper and the Kiwi mare was allocated 55kgs, a touch more than her connections expected.
While that won’t stop her starting, what will surprise some is fellow four-year-old Autumn Boy being given only 55.5kgs, less than expected.
That means Well Written will receive only 0.5kg of an advantage over Autumn Boy, who chased Sheza Alibi home in the super strong Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
Under the weight-for-age scale, Well Written would get a 2kg advantage over Autumn Boy, as Sheza Alibi did last Saturday at Flemington, but the Epsom is a handicap so horses are allocated their weights by the handicapper.
And while the outstanding Sydney colt has won both the Caulfield and Rosehill Guineas he has yet to win an open-age Group 1 race, albeit having also having finished second to Sheza Alibi in the open-age Doncaster in April.
Well Written has won an open Group 1, taking out the $400,000 Proisir Plate at Ellerslie at weight-for-age last start, so while there is a significant gap in the strength of most New Zealand and Australian Group 1 these days, the two four-year-olds have ended up closer in the weights than expected.
That means Autumn Boy now looks likely to start in the Epsom with James McDonald to ride while Lloyd is locked in for Well Written.
Lloyd is a superstar of the saddle and his engagement for the Epsom means it will be the first time in seven career starts Matt Cartwright won’t ride Well Written.
In reality, that comes as no surprise as the days of New Zealand trainers taking local jockeys to Australia for major races are all but long gone.
Our best jockey, Opie Bosson, has done so to ride horses like Imperatriz in recent years but apart from Bosson or the very rare situations where a stable has a retained rider the practice of taking local jockeys to Sydney or Melbourne is virtually non-existent.
That is a fact Cartwright, as an Australian based in New Zealand, would know only too well so the rider change will come as no surprise to him.
Trainer Stephen Marsh was full of praise for how Cartwright has handled Well Written before confirming Lloyd’s booking on Monday.
“After consultation with Yulong and the ownership group, we believed it was important to have a Sydney-based jockey for the Epsom,” Marsh told the Herald.
“Matt has been an integral part of Well Written’s career to date and will continue to play an important role in the preparation for her Australian campaign.
“He has an important job to do over the next six weeks with our team of runners here and will continue to be Well Written’s rider when she next runs in New Zealand.”
Cartwright has already been booked to partner the Marsh-trained El Vencedor if he heads to Hastings for the Group 1 Howden Mile on Saturday week.
As deep as the Sydney riding ranks are securing Lloyd for Well Written is a hugely positive move for her camp as some see the young jockey as the heir apparent to James McDonald if the Kiwi world champion jockey ever slows down, which he is admittedly showing no signs of doing at the moment.
“We are thrilled to secure the services of Zac Lloyd, “ says Marsh.
“Zac has cemented himself as one of Australia’s leading riders, he is riding in terrific form and has the added bonus of being a natural lightweight for the Epsom.”
Well Written has come through her Proisir-Plate win perfectly and had a light week, with Marsh saying the daughter of Written Tycoon is unlikely to be seen in public before the Epsom.
“She is a naturally fit horse who we will give a few good gallops here at Cambridge and she will fly to Sydney the week of the race.”
All going well in the Epsom and after, Well Written will stay in Sydney to take on Sheza Alibi and what is shaping as a super strong field in the A$10m Golden Eagle at Randwick on October 31.
After Monday’s weights were released, Autumn Boy is now the $3.50 favourite for the Epsom ahead of Well Written at $4.20 with Sheza Alibi, who was given 57kgs for the Epsom, still the third favourite but almost certain not to start.
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.