Christmas Stakes 2015: Giffiths weighing up options for sprinter

Trainer Robbie Griffiths is weighing up his options with It Is Written after the sprinter drew poorly in the Christmas Stakes.

Griffiths is aiming It Is Written at next month’s Group Two Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley and pinpointed Saturday’s Listed Christmas Stakes at Caulfield as a lead-up.

But Griffiths said barrier 12 under topweight of 60kg had him rethinking.

“That barrier is horrible. I was hoping for barrier one to five with 60 kilos because I’ve brought his preparation forward,” Griffiths said.

“We’ll see. We’ll go through the process and see how his pre-race blood profile and everything is and if everything is in order we might run but our confidence has been knocked around.”

Griffiths had looked to kick off the gelding’s campaign on January 9.

“The race that we want to have a red-hot dip at is on January 23 at Moonee Valley in the Australia Stakes. He ran second in it last season to Mourinho,” Griffiths said.

“We wanted to run him on the ninth of January and there’s nothing here in Melbourne that works for him, unless they put on another open handicap, so that’s why we brought his preparation forward to kick off in the Christmas Stakes and that gives him four weeks to the Valley race.”

Should he decide against starting It Is Written on Saturday, Griffiths said he would consider running him in a benchmark race on January 9 with a claiming apprentice, or give him a barrier trial and go into the Australia Stakes first-up.

 

Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au

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