There is no such thing as a well-timed foot abscess, but Matthew Williams has taken positives from the one that kept Wrote To Arataki out of the Empires Rose Stakes.
The Warrnambool trainer discovered the abscess in the 48 hours leading up to the $1 million event at Flemington on November 4, which was to be not only her first start at Group 1 level but first run over 1600 metres.
The Empire Rose Stakes was won in dashing style by Pride Of Jenni, who followed it up with victory in last Saturday’s Group 1 Champions Stakes, leaving Williams relieved his last-start Group 2 winner was not part of the chasing pack.
Wrote To Arataki will instead chase a maiden Group 1 win in this Saturday’s $1.5 million Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
“I think the mile race would have been very hard for her the other day, chasing Pride Of Jenni,” Williams said.
“Potentially she would have been one of the ones trying to cart the field up, so I wasn’t too disappointed that we missed that and we now get to stay at 1400.”
Williams toyed with the idea of starting the daughter of Wrote at Flemington, but past experience told him it would have been a wasted run.
“It was just a little abscess in her heel, it was pretty minor and it was 50/50 whether we could have run her, but every time I’ve done that it’s never worked out,” Williams said.
“When they’ve had an abscess, under race pressure it just seems to tell.”
Wrote To Arataki’s work since has Williams convinced she is holding together well enough to make it back-to-back wins at the scene of her Group 2 Tristarc Stakes (1400m) victory on October 21.
“She galloped on the Tuesday after (the Empire Rose Stakes) and felt fine and she worked again on the treadmill on Saturday morning,” he said.
Wrote To Arataki is one of 27 nominations for the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes, which will be run for the first time in a November timeslot.
Buenos Noches and I Am Me, runners up to Imperatriz at that Kiwi star’s last two Group 1 wins, are also among the entries, as are Magic Time, Munhamek, Osipenko, Skew Wiff, Buffalo River and Chris Waller’s Japanese recruit Lauda Sion.
