For the second year running, Lindsay Park has claimed the season-opener for two-year-olds in Melbourne with Nomothaj prevailing at Flemington.
The Shadwell Stud-owned filly on Saturday won the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes (1000m) – 12 months after stablemate Madeenaty was successful.
Ridden by Stephen Baster, Nonothaj was backed from $5.50 into $4.80 before winning by a nose from Ranier ($9) with the $4 favourite Sunlight 1-1/4 lengths away third.
Nomothaj is one of more than 100 two-year-olds Lindsay Park has on its books this season with senior trainer David Hayes describing her as one of the more precocious.
While he thought the filly was a good chance of success he didn’t have the same confidence that he had as 12 months earlier.
“She (Madeenaty) had that push-button speed but I love the way this one fought,” Hayes said.
“This filly at three different stages through the run had other horses that were going as well as her and I thought she would be beaten,
“But she fought like a tiger and we might have a tough filly.
“She’s always been a pretty straight-forward filly and being by Snitzel, if they work well they usually run well.”
Nomothaj was purchased for $420,000 by Angus Gold for Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the Magic Millions yearling sales in January.
Hayes said he favoured giving the filly a break before preparing her for the Magic Millions Classic at the Gold Coast in January.
