A 13th juvenile winner of the season for Champion 2-year-old Sire elect Written Tycoon as the favourite Earth God made short work of his opposition in Friday’s Bet365 Maiden Plate (1212m) at Geelong.
Sporting the bottle green Yulong silks, Jye McNeil held an uncontested lead from an inside barrier on Earth God. Despite scrambling around the home turn, the Anthony and Same Freedman-trained youngster drew clear to defeat the Shooting To Win filly Dollar Shot by three and three-quarter lengths, with the Lonhro colt Buades a length and a half back in third.
Earth God had taken plenty of benefit from his debut third behind the Blue Point colt’s Interest Point and Blue Renegade at Caufield on June 1.
“It was very straightforward; he’s got improvement left in him,” McNeil said.
“He is still learning, getting his leg changes done too soon, and is not overly tractable.
“He was very keen going to the gates, and at one stage, I did not think I could stop him.”
A $520,000 buy from the Vinery Stud draft at the 2023 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Earth God was the second most expensive of the eleven Written Tycoon yearlings purchased by Yu Long Investments at the sale.
The striking brown colt is the first winner from three to race for the stakes-placed I Am Invincible mare Miss Antaeus, whose dam Crestfallen is a half-sister to the dam of Zoustar.
Miss Antaeus has a weanling colt by Bivouac and was covered by Too Darn Hot (GB) last spring.