Way To The Stars ran up to his third behind I Am Me and Bella Nipotina in the Group III Concorde Stakes at Randwick when opening his stakes account in the Listed Racing And Sports Century Stakes (1000m) down the straight at Flemington on Crown Oaks Day.
Ridden by Nash Rawiller for Matthew Smith, the 6-year-old son of Reward For Effort joined the grandstand group as the field split into two divisions.
Always in the leading group, Way To The Stars defeated Godolphin’s 5-year-old Exosphere gelding Spacewalk by three-quarters of a length, with the 5-year-old Shalaa (IRE) gelding Recommendation a long-neck back in third.
The Zammit family homebred advances his record to seven wins, three seconds, and two thirds from 22 starts with earnings of $509,370.
“That was a good, solid effort, and Nash gets on with him well,” Smith said
“I thought this would be the last run for the prep. He’s had a few runs now, but he’s actually stood up really well during the prep.
“He’s getting a bit older and a bit more seasoned, and he’s putting his runs together now. He’s a bit more consistent.
“It's nice when you get a jockey that likes the horse, they want to ride him and it' s great to get the win here today.
“We got on the wrong side of it lately in the last couple of runs where we haven’t got to the outside of horses.
“Nash said to me he should be winning stakes races. I thought I’d give him a shot at it today.”
Nash Rawiller said drawing wide was a blessing.
“He jumped well. I think it was a bonus for him being drawn out,” he said.
“The plan was to go four off the outside fence. Get him into his comfort zone.
“He is a real speed horse, who tends to overdo it. It was a master class bringing him down here for this race as he has always promised a lot.
“From day one, he has shown signs that he could be up there with class sprinters. On his day he can be, especially over 1000 metres.
“He’s a horse I’ve got a lot of time for, and I’m sure I’ll win a good race on him one day.”
Way To The Stars is the best of two winners from three to race for the Written Tycoon mare Writteninthestars, who won three metropolitan races in Sydney for Chris Waller.
While devoid of black-type for several generations, Writteninthestars descends from the family that boasts one of the all-time greats, Sunline.
Way To The Stars is the final foal of Writteninthestars, which was pensioned in 2020.
He is the 12th black-type winner for the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes hero Reward For Effort (Exceed And Excel), who died in 2021 after eleven seasons at stud.
