Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos
Sandown’s midweek meeting on Wednesday got off to a good start when the well-fancied filly Nunthorpe, a daughter of Playing God and a $1.60 favourite on the local tote, coasted home for jockey Jamie Kah in the opening event.
Three-year-old Nunthorpe is trained by Peter Moody, who no doubt cast an eye over the race while ringside at Magic Millions, and she’d been a winner on debut at Cranbourne in late December, on that occasion just getting the better of the Turffontein filly Shaime.
Wednesday’s field was a small one, with just six horses going to post over the 1400 metres, but it included the Lindsay Park gelding Rheinberg (NZ) (Swiss Ace), and it was this pair that proved the spectacle.
Both jumped very smartly from gates five and four respectively, with Kah taking a sit and allowing Rheinberg to tow the field and, after an easy dash down the straight, Nunthorpe posted a 0.75l win over Rheinberg, with a further 4.25l to third-placed Thesecondatportsea (Churchill {Ire}).
The winning time of 1:26.01 was over a second off the standard time for the track and distance, proving it a sit and sprint affair.
With Moody parked on the Gold Coast, his assistant trainer, Katherine Coleman, was trackside at Sandown. She said Nunthorpe’s debut win at Cranbourne looked good by the results in late December, but not everything had gone right on that occasion.
Katherine Coleman | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“Cranbourne possibly didn’t go to plan,” Coleman told Racing.com. “She got stuck in a little bit of traffic, but today (Wednesday) she was in a beautiful spot and able to build and roll from there. Also, I think the track definitely suited her better. She’s a big, rangy mare so that suited her.”
Coleman said there were options ahead for Nunthorpe, who races in the red and white checks of Robert Crabtree’s Dorrington Farm.
“We’ll continue to build her through her grades and her education, being such a lightly raced mare,” the assistant trainer said. “She has the ability to get some black type along the way, if not raise the bar even higher. I think she’ll continue to improve as we step her up in trip. Obviously, you don’t know until you try it, but I definitely think a mile is going to suit her.”
“We’ll continue to build her (Nunthorpe) through her grades and her education, being such a lightly raced mare. She has the ability to get some black type along the way, if not raise the bar even higher.” - Katherine Coleman
Jamie Kah had a very good opinion of the filly after the win. The jockey had returned from the Magic Millions barrier draw spectacle on the beach on Tuesday morning specifically for the Nunthorpe ride.
“She was definitely the reason I wanted to come back,” Kah said. “She’s a very talented filly, just a beautiful animal to ride. Moods has done a great job getting her prepared and she’s got the best temperament, the best head on her. I think that will take her a long way but she’s obviously got ability to go with it.”
A sale-topper
Nunthorpe was a late October foal in the spring of 2019. By Playing God, she is a daughter of the Oratorio mare Latoria, who herself is a Listed winner in Western Australia.
Latoria is also stakes-placed and a half-sister to the Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) winner of the G1 Oakleigh Plate, Sheidel, with Sheidel posting a brilliant career from 2015 until 2017, winning a total of three Group features and seven stakes races in Victoria and Western Australia.
Jamie Kah returns to the mounting yard aboard Nunthorpe after winning at Sandown | Image courtesy of Racing Photos
Nunthorpe was Latoria’s third surviving foal. The mare has proved a tricky breeder since a pelvic injury, and her latest foal (since Nunthorpe) was a colt born in early November by the Willaview Park sire A Lot (USA).
In 2013, she’d had a colt by Scandal Keeper (USA), later named Scandale who was winless in three starts.
Nunthorpe was bred at the Mungrup Stud operation of Gray Williamson in Western Australia. She was barely a yearling when, in August 2020 and owing to his marriage dissolving, Mungrup hosted a complete online dispersal sale via Magic Millions Online, and the filly was offered as Lot 50.
Nunthorpe as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions Online
Nunthorpe ended up topping the sale, selling to Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock (FBAA) for $110,000. Thereafter, she headed east to the ownership of Dorrington Farm and, ultimately, into the care of Peter Moody.
For Gray Williamson in Western Australia, Nunthorpe’s creep into contention as a classy east-coast 3-year-old has been an enjoyable result since the dispersal of Mungrup Stud nearly three years ago.
“It’s pleasing for all the people that put their hands up at that sale and bought the horses,” he said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “That was a very good result on Wednesday for that filly, and she’s now two-for-two. She was a beautifully bred yearling and I’m glad they’ve taken their time with her.”
“It’s (the results) pleasing for all the people that put their hands up at that sale and bought the horses. That was a very good result on Wednesday for that filly (Nunthorpe), and she’s now two-for-two. She was a beautifully bred yearling and I’m glad they’ve taken their time with her.” - Gray Williamson
Nunthorpe’s price-tag in 2020, at $110,000, was about what Williamson expected at the time.
“I was expecting her to top the sale,” he said. “I even thought she could have made a bit more than that, but it is what it is. That’s what happens.”
Mungrup Stud, these days, operates as a much smaller, boutique-like operation. When horses have been in your blood as long as they have for Williamson, it’s hard to walk away, even with the amount of stock that was sold by Magic Millions in August 2020.
The online dispersal featured 157 horses by sires like Playing God, I’m All The Talk, Oratorio and Lucky Street, and, alongside Nunthorpe, there have been a number of good winners from it.
Bustler as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions Online
Bustler, a now 3-year-old Playing God gelding, also from an Oratorio mare, is a four-time winner in Western Australia from six starts for Neville Parnham. He emerged from the sale when bought for $32,500 by Ruby Racing and Breeding.
“A lot of really good runners have come out of that dispersal already,” Williamson said. “I actually had that conversation with Grant Burns recently, just how many good winners had come out of it already, even before Nunthorpe came along.”
Playing God with the cross
Overwhelmingly, Williamson recalls Nunthorpe as one of the best-bred fillies in the dispersal, so it was no surprise that Robert Crabtree came knocking from Victoria.
“She was always a beautifully made horse,” he said. “Her mother unfortunately had some sort of pelvis injury, so she (the dam) finds it difficult to hold condition, and also hold pregnancies, and that’s why she hasn’t been very prolific on the breeding side of the things.”
Playing God | Standing at Darling View Thoroughbreds
Playing God hasn’t had many runners make it to the east coast. Williamson can recall only a few. Overall, the stallion has had 81 winners from 118 starters in Australia, with 10 stakes winners and, among those, five Group winners.
All of his stakes winners, including the G2 Western Australia Derby winner Alaskan God, have occurred in Western Australia.
“He hasn’t had very much to race over there, but I have no doubt that if he had young horses racing on the east coast, he would be making as much impact over there as he’s had over here,” Williamson said. “He is turning out to be a very, very good stallion.”
“He (Playing God) hasn’t had very much to race over there, but I have no doubt that if he had young horses racing on the east coast, he would be making as much impact over there as he’s had over here.” - Gray Williamson
Williamson said the Playing God cross over Oratorio mares was one that had worked excellently in recent years in Western Australia, which was particularly satisfying given that both Playing God and Oratorio both stood at Mungrup Stud when the operation ceased major commercial activity in 2020.
Playing God was relocated to Darling View Thoroughbreds, and Oratorio, a son of Stravinsky (USA), was retired from duties in January last year.
“The Playing God-Oratorio cross has done extremely well,” Williamson said. “It’s produced horses like Nunthorpe and Bustling, and I think the stakes winners to runners’ ratio is really quite high. A lot of that is to do with Playing God, who is sitting 39th on the broodmare sires’ list in Australia right now.”
Mungrup Stud, now a much more boutique outfit, will present five yearlings at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale next month. One, a Harry Angel (Ire) colt, is in partnership with Willaview Park.
Nunthorpe’s climb to prominence in the east, even if she hasn’t yet hit stakes company, is good feedback for Williamson ahead of the state's biggest sale.
“I certainly watched the race,” he said. “I had plenty of texts come my way reminding me that she was running, so there must have been plenty of people watching.”
