Group 1 racing returned for the season at Caulfield with a metro double for Belmont Bloodstock purchases as NUNTHORPE took out the third race on the card, before VEIGHT handed the McEvoy stable another stakes win, after he motored home to land the G3 McNeil Stakes.
The win on NUNTHORPE gave Champion jockey Jamie Kah a special comeback city winner, with the well-educated filly relaxing beautifully outside the leader and pinched a break in the straight to provide Kah a first city winner since being sidelined in early March.
NUNTHORPE was a weanling purchase for Belmont Bloodstock on behalf of Robert and Sylvie Crabtree of Dorrington Farm out of the Mungrup Dispersal sale. By leading Western Australian stallion PLAYING GOD who stands at Darling View Stud, NUNTHORPE is a daughter of the stakes winning ORATORIO mare LATORIA.
LATORIA is also a half-sister to the winner of the G1 Oakleigh Plate, SHEIDEL (herself a private purchase in a deal negotiated between Damon and Robert), 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. SHEIDEL also currently resides in the broodmare band of Dorrington Farm.
NUNTHORPE ended up topping the Mungrup Dispersal sale, selling to Belmont Bloodstock for $110,000. Thereafter, she headed east to the ownership of Dorrington Farm and into the care of trainers Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman. She now boasts an impressive race record, with three wins and two placings from only six starts. Already Group placed NUNTHORPE looks set to become a stakes winner this campaign.
Saturday continued to be a red letter day for Belmont Bloodstock, with VEIGHT handing Yulong sire GRUNT (NZ) another welcome boost where the he romped in to win the G3 McNeil Stakes defeating another of the Moody stable runners in that of stakes winning LEGACIES (by JUSTIFY).
VEIGHT was a $220,000 Inglis Classic purchase for the McEvoy Mitchell Racing stable from the draft of Sledmere Stud. As a 2yo, VEIGHT devastated his rivals with a 6l maiden win and a similarly impressive victory in the G2 Sires’ Produce Stakes at Flemington.
After rounding out his 2yo season with a more than creditable fourth in the G1 Inglis Sires’ at Royal Randwick, VEIGHT was sent to the paddock for a spell with expectations understandably higher for his Classic year. Much to the delight of his connections, the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained colt delivered on those expectations on Saturday when claiming the scalp of the previously unbeaten LEGACIES and last season’s G1 Blue Diamond Stakes hero LITTLE BROSE.
Having already won over 1400 metres as a 2yo, VEIGHT could easily have been forgiven for finding the 1200m of Saturday’s G3 McNeil Stakes a tad on the sharp side, but any such fears were quickly put to bed when he burst through a gap at the 200m mark, before lengthening impressively to score by 0.75l.
VEIGHT looks very well-positioned to feature prominently in both the G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude and G1 Caulfield Guineas later in the spring – the two races which have been identified as his most likely next assignments. We look forward to a bright campaign ahead for both NUNTHORPE and VEIGHT as we head into the height of the Spring Carnival riches.
