14th Group 1 winner for Not A Single Doubt
Not A Single Doubt is now retired, but his brilliant stud record and his legion of admiring fans continue to grow. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
Until Sunday evening, it seemed that 7YO Southern Legend was running out of time to add a Group 1 win alongside his status as Not A Single Doubt’s all-time leading earner.
One horse had regularly denied Boniface Ho’s marvellous competitor that elite victory: two-time Hong Kong Horse of the Year and World Champion Miler Beauty Generation.
Trained by Caspar Fownes, Southern Legend had met Beauty Generation in six Group 1 races and Beauty Generation had won four of them, with Southern Legend finishing third in the 2018 Champions Mile & Hong Kong Mile and the 2019 Stewards’ Cup.
Ahead of the HK$20 million (~A$4 million) Champions Mile G1, Beauty Generation was the favourite to collect the 9th Group 1 win of his career after winning the Chairman’s Trophy G2 on 5 April, defeating Ka Ying Star and – yes, you guessed it – Southern Legend.
The predicted outcome looked likely when the Champions Mile field rounded the bend at Sha Tin and Beauty Generation accelerated smoothly past Ka Ying Star. But wider out, Southern Legend sprinted with him and they pulled clear to fight out the last 300 metres with Not A Single Doubt’s lion-hearted son getting his head down on the line to score in 1:33.13.
First Gr1 win for Southern Legend @BonHo93524033 @inglis_sales @CarmelSize and @Vincenthocy in the Champions Mile @HKJC_Racing – the 14th Gr1 winner for Not A Single Doubt @ArrowfieldStud and his biggest earner. pic.twitter.com/LFj7PERuZl
— Pedigree Update (@pedigreeupdate) April 26, 2020
The fifth black type success of Southern Legend’s six-season, 40-start career takes his prizemoney to A$7.6 million – by any measure a spectacular return on the $280,000 paid for him by Carmel Size & Neville Begg at the 2012 Inglis Easter Sale, where he was offered by his breeder Corumbene Stud.
Carmel Size recalled, “We had him here in Australia with Les [Bridge] at the start and won four races with him before he went to Hong Kong, he always had that ability.”
Southern Legend’s dam, city winner Donna’s Appeal (by Carnegie), from the family of Group 1 winner & sire Charge Forward, has an unraced 2YO Not A Single Doubt filly Loveland (retained by Corumbene Stud), a weanling colt by Epaulette and is now in foal to Dundeel.
In the year of his retirement from stud duties, Not A Single Doubt has compiled his best season tally of 5 Group 1 winners: Samadoubt (Winx S.), Scales Of Justice (Memsie S.), Farnan (Golden Slipper), Shout The Bar (Vinery Stud S.) and Southern Legend.
That takes his career total to 14 – and he is far from finished yet.
