Bell River celebrates Extreme success
Extreme Choice became Not A Single Doubt’s 30th stakeswinner in spectacular fashion at Randwick on Saturday in the $500,000 ATC Inglis Nursery 1000m (R) LR.
The 2YO colt jumped smartly from barrier three, took up a comfortable lead and when called upon by Glyn Schofield, instantly found another gear to score by two lengths from So Serene with a further six lengths back to Rampage (a new stakes performer for All American), who finished off strongly for third.
The winning time of 56.85 and especially the last 600-metre sectional of 33.91 underlined the merit of the colt’s performance.
Watch Extreme Choice win the Inglis Nursery (R) LR.
The $294,000 winner’s cheque richly rewarded the good judgement and careful planning of Extreme Choice’s Melbourne trainer Mick Price and his Bloodstock Manager Luke Wilkinson, who selected the colt at the 2015 Inglis Classic Sale, as well as the team of owners who took shares in him.
It was equally satisfying for Andrew & Georgie Ferguson of Bell River Thoroughbreds who bred Extreme Choice with good clients Lloyd Walker & Bob Hogno and sold him for $100,000.
The Fergusons have been staunch supporters of Not A Single Doubt from the start of his career, sending mares to him every season and pin-hooking his weanlings, as well as purchasing mares in foal to the brilliant son of Redoute’s Choice. That’s how they bred Extreme Choice (ex Extremely, by Hussonet), and Matthew Smith’s Rosehill winner and Magic Millions 2YO Classic contender Faraway Town (ex London Calling by Dehere), a $200,000 purchase by Mystery Downs.
The handsome financial returns now include the $50,000 vendor & supplier bonuses attached to the Inglis Nursery win, but Andrew is keen to talk about Bell River’s four named 2YO graduates by Not A Single Doubt, two of them yet to race. They were part of a 2015 Class he describes as “the best team of horses we’d taken to the yearling sales in the eight or nine years we’ve been operating.”
Andrew remembers, “Extreme Choice was just a neat, compact horse with a tremendous walk, while No Doubt A Star [ex Radiant Star, and a recent trial winner] was a showy, flashy type.” Bought by Paul Beamish on behalf of a Hong Kong client for $270,000, Bell River’s best-ever sale result, No Doubt A Star won a Randwick trial from the John Sargent stable in November and is a Golden Slipper prospect.
A third colt, Nasdex (ex Indexed by Marauding, and trained by Peter Moody for a First Light Racing syndicate), won a jumpout and was subsequently gelded. Now back in pre-training, he’ll return to Caulfield after Christmas and be given his opportunity to go down the Blue Diamond path.
Andrew reckons that admirers of Faraway Town or Extreme Choice need only look at the farm’s two Not A Single Doubt yearlings catalogued for the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale.
He says, “The filly out of Possessed reminds me a lot of Faraway Town. She has a different physique, she’s more of a 1400-metre/miler type, but she’s very like Faraway Town in her attitude, just does her work without fuss, she’s totally professional.
“The colt out of Wilde Irish Song is like Extreme Choice, he’s compact and nuggety, correct with a good attitude, and he’s done really well through his preparation.”
Andrew has no hesitation describing what makes Not A Single Doubt so attractive to breeders and buyers alike.
“Speed and precocity, and they nearly all run. He gets carnival horses, he gets runners and winners in town, and syndicators & trainers love buying them because he stacks the odds in their favour.”
Andrew is confident that Not A Single Doubt will make a very good broodmare sire too, and he’s already backed his judgement by adding the talented but unraced Mill Park-bred filly Daisy Lane, a half-sister to Captain Sonador, to the Bell River broodmare band.
Not A Single Doubt is now third on the Australian General Sires’ list with $4.1 million, and heads the table by winners with 74 – seven of them stakeswinners. He has 32 yearlings catalogued for January’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, five lots in the Inglis Classic Sale; and seven in the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale.
