STAR colt Written By will have his first look at Flemington in a jump-out on Friday week ahead of next month’s Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes following his dominant performance in Wednesday’s Blue Sapphire Stakes.

Trainer Grahame Begg said he had “left a little bit of juice in the orange” leading into the Group 3 race at Caulfield, but stressed the horse would peak at Flemington on November 3.

That’s an ominous prospect for his rivals, as this year’s Blue Diamond winner has already built an impressive CV, having won six of his seven career starts.

“That’s his target, the Coolmore, in two-and-a-half weeks,” Begg said of the colt who has already amassed $1.7 million in prizemoney, and who could have a much bigger pay day if he can win the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes.

Recent Coolmore winners Merchant Navy, Flying Artie (who also won the Blue Sapphire), Zoustar and Brazen Beau have all found lucrative stud homes in their post-racing careers.

“He’s about 90 per cent (fit) … he will have a jump-out up the straight on Friday week, just a little gallop up there,” Begg said.

“He has got to have a workout somewhere, so we might as well take him, and give him a look at the straight, and he will be spot on for Coolmore day.”

Written By ($1.65) jumped awkwardly, but settled and controlled the temp early in Wednesday’s race. He still had plenty in hand when he fought off Encryption ($8) to win by a length and a half, with Tony Nicconi ($11) in third place.

Begg had long targeted the Coolmore Stud Stakes with Written By, having meticulously mapped out his three-race campaign months ago.

He is convinced his son of I Am Invincible will handle the Flemington straight, and predicts the Coolmore might not have a full capacity field as was the case last year when Merchant Navy weaved a passage through traffic to win.

“I don’t know where the horses are going to come from in the race because we had a small field today, and a lot of the horses that went to the mile races aren’t going to come back,” Begg said. “I am tipping this year there is not going to be as big a field.”

Jordan Childs, who has partnered the horse in all seven starts, said there was still some improvement left in the tank.

“I think only having a light spring and being third up in the Coolmore is a massive plus for him,” Childs said.

STAR SHOOTS FOR MYER CLASSIC
I AM A Star lived up to her name on Wednesday with trainer Shane Nichols now eyeing a defence of the mare’s Myer Classic crown on Derby Day.

The five-year-old mare blitzed her opponents to claim the Group 2 Ladies’ Day Vase at Caulfield with Ben Melham on board, and Nichols said she now had a date with Derby Day in the race she claimed last year.

“Bring on the Myer,” he declared.

Melham set the tone of the race which Nichols said played into the mare’s hand beautifully.

“After they’d gone 100m, she went from a $4 pop to about a $1.50 pop,” he said.

“Once they were happy to just let (Melham) dictate the race, it was going to take a hell of a lot of running down.”

Nichols had elected not to run his charge in the recent Toorak Handicap, but said he hoped that entering I Am A Star in the Mackinnon Stakes on the last day of the spring carnival would be on the table.

If a few outside factors — one involving Winx — work to their favour, of course.

“I’d like to (race in the Mackinnon) — I don’t know whether I’ll be given the tick of approval,” Nichols laughed. “If all of a sudden Winx has her Cox Plate and wanders off to the paddock, it’d be silly not to. She’s two and a half weeks in now, and she won the Myer off a seven-day (break), and she likes Flemington. Why not?.”