Monday Musings: Nunthorpe Notices

Amid all the excitement of the longer-distance Group 1 races set to be staged at next week’s Ebor Festival at York, one that normally commands less attention is the Nunthorpe Stakes, an all-aged 5f sprint, writes Tony Stafford.

In this case, all truly does mean all, as we’ve 27 horses still entered for Friday week’s Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes, the title paying homage to the stud’s closest acknowledged successor to Galileo and the race’s being worth a tasty £340k to its winner.

Ages are represented from seven all the way down to a couple of two-year-olds. True Love, the Queen Mary winner at Royal Ascot and then successful back home in the 6f Railway Stakes, is in the list but she was humbled in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.

Whether Aidan O’Brien will be tempted to try to win back some of his employers’ money is an intriguing question. The other juvenile in the original cast was Zelaina, a 650k breeze-up buy for Wathnan Racing who won first time for Karl Burke at Nottingham but flopped at Ascot and again when favourite at Goodwood.

But, and in a season of exceptional achievements from the first crop of Starman, there might just be a left field contender. It comes in the shape of Ger Lyons’ Lady Iman, the first scorer for her fledgling sire at Dundalk as early as March 28, and successful another three times, including impressively in the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood.

Starman, trained for his breeder David Ward by Ed Walker, didn’t make it to the track at two, but the son of Dutch Art made up for it with five wins from eight starts at three and four, including an impressive win from 18 others in the July Cup at Newmarket.

Lady Iman’s story, as ever in racing, is one of one man’s (or family’s) luck meaning another’s misfortune. She was bred by the Tony O’Callaghan family at their Tally-Ho stud which stands Starman. She was sold for £185,000 but returned by the buyer, leaving her to run in wife Anne O’Callaghan’s colours.

By Goodwood, she comfortably won against the colts despite carrying a 3lb Group 3 penalty. She had lost her unbeaten record the time before over 6f at the Curragh when a Wootton Bassett filly from the Ballydoyle yard outstayed her after she had looked the assured winner.

Now Lyons, not entirely of his own volition it seems, has been persuaded by the O’Callaghans to supplement her for the Nunthorpe, where she will aim to be only the third winner of the race of her age since 1992.

That was the year when Richard Hannon senior’s filly Lyric Fantasy started at odds-on under Michael Roberts, now a top trainer in his native South Africa. He did 1lb overweight at 7st8lb. In 2007, the John Best colt Kingsgate Native was a 12/1 shot under Jimmy Quinn and ran home a comfortable winner, belatedly opening his account at the same time.

The Starman success story began with a rush and has continued unabated with I think 16 individual winners, several of them emulating Lady Iman by clocking up multiple wins.

Foremost among them – for now – must be Venetian Sun who completed her unbeaten hat-trick in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket last month. Green Sense, who had been a close second earlier on home soil to Lady Iman, went across to France and won the Prix Robert Papin, a noted Group 2 summer juvenile feature there.

Starman’s owner-breeder David Ward was on hand to see The Prettiest Star, his homebred daughter of the sire, romp away to a wide-margin debut victory in a newcomers’ race at Newmarket on Friday evening. Simon Crisford expects her to be a star and is looking forward to formulating an appropriate programme for her. Ward coyly admits to having “another nine or ten” of that minted first crop “waiting in the wings”, as you do.

Having counted to 16 from the list of Starman winners, I came to a borderline similar result when having a first look through the initial test of potential two-year-old marketability, Goff’s Premier Yearling Sales, staged at Doncaster immediately after York, on the 27^th and 28^th of August.

Around 400 yearlings will be offered, 17 by my count with Starman as their obvious attraction and five of those coming from Tally-Ho. Should the filly win on the previous Friday, the O’Callaghans will not have to wait long into the Doncaster sale to see how much that will affect prices. Lot 1 is their daughter of Starman out of the Dunaden mare Under Oath. Light blue touch paper and retire? Not quite!

Anne O’Callaghan will be a very much welcomed winner of the Nunthorpe if that should come to pass. She is the sister of John Magnier and there is no question that she, along with Tony and sons Roger and Henry, have not wasted any knowledge picked up from their illustrious relative.

Tally-Ho Stud has been a watchword for developing raw stallion talent into top progenitors, with Mehmas (now €70k from €7.5k in 2020) an obvious example. Kodiak, still going strong at age 24, has settled back down for this year at €25k after peaking at €65k for four seasons (2019-2022) from a starting point of just €5k.

Top sprinter Big Evs (€17.5k) and Champion Stakes winner and Derby runner-up King Of Steel (€20k) were this year’s new additions, but no doubt Roger O’Callaghan will be keeping his eyes open for further prospects for 2026, the new blood that the stud habitually finds under everyone else’s noses!

Joe Fanning, 54 years old but still riding to the top of his ability, has been booked to manage the light weight of 8st and the 27lb his mount receives from the older male sprinters is a compelling attraction.

There was a lovely “where are they now” piece in the Racing Post around the time of Royal Ascot this year where Chris Richardson, boss of Cheveley Park Stud, detailed the many phases of Kingsgate Native’s life.

After the big win at two, he continued to race in John Mayne’s colours at three, although bought by the stud for a projected stallion career, and he added the Golden Jubilee Stakes at three at the Royal meeting.

A first try at stud didn’t work out so he returned to racing, though not with Best, starting with Sir Michael Stoute and continuing until age 11. After that he spent time at the British Racing School. As Chris related, “Anyone who could stay on him had achieved something as he enjoyed throwing the riders off!”

A later phase was his time at the Newmarket Horseracing Museum where he was a celebrity that the regular visitors always sought out. He left there four years ago to spend his time in Cheveley Park’s paddocks but last August he was paraded at York prior to the Nunthorpe. “He spent a couple of weeks at David O’Meara’s before that and he was great,” says Richardson. “We’ve no plans for him now,” he said, adding, “He’s just living a wonderful life”. Just the job for a 20-year-old!

On the basis of even-handedness, what of John Best, who left the training ranks a couple of years ago? I called him over the weekend and he told me he has joined forces with his girlfriend Raeane Turner, who owns the Rhoden Rehabilitation Centre near Tonbridge in Kent, close to where John trained for the whole of his successful career.

“It has been running since 2020. Not the best time to open! We have an equine water treadmill which is used in the rehabilitation after injury but just as much for strength and conditioning. I’m also a great believer in injury prevention. This gets the horses working using all four limbs equally and therefore helps to stop compensatory injuries before they occur. It’s an unbelievable bit of kit.

“We also have a combi floor which is a magnetic vibrating plate that increases blood circulation and provides a full body massage. This is helpful for many types of injury and afterwards for exercise to loosen them up. Finally, in the centre we have a cryotherapy machine which we use to reduce heat and swelling and increase blood supply.

“My principal job though is running the salt and oxygen system. We have it mobile in the back of a 3.5 ton horsebox and go to yards to treat horses with breathing and skin issues. Also, it’s used post-surgery to speed up healing. The horses go in the back of the box and the whole of the back fills with a very fine mist of Dead Sea Salt. They breathe it in and it lands on their skin. I’ve been amazed by the results.

“Horses with allergies or asthma respond really well. We have had horses that the vets cannot stop coughing but we seem to be able to sort it out. We are getting more referrals from vets all the time as our system allows horses to be treated drug-free. Quite often it’s horses they just can’t seem to fix,” he said.

John’s 25-year career had many other highlights apart from the two Group 1 wins from Kingsgate Native. A regular at St Moritz over the winters, he had multiple wins there most years, recognising the right horses to send to race on that frozen lake. Also, in 2008, the year of Kingsgate Native’s Golden Jubilee success, he sent three horses to run in the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity on the Polytrack at Keeneland in Kentucky and won with Square Eddie. His other two runners finished fourth and eighth.

A very nice and knowledgeable guy. I wish him well.

- TS

Other Recent Posts by This Author:

• Monday Musings: Dazzling Doubles
• Monday Musings: It’s Aidan Again!
• Monday Musings: Raising the Stakes in September
• Monday Musings: The Ups and (Kentucky) Downs of Racing
• Monday Musings: Sovereignty Looks The Real Deal