67th stakeswinner for Not A Single Doubt

Already an impressive winner of his September debut, the Tony Pike-trained 2YO Not An Option became Not A Single Doubt’s 67th stakeswinner with a quality performance in Saturday’s NZ$100,000 WRC Wakefield Challenge S. 1100m G2 at Trentham in New Zealand.

Not to be doubted! #NotAnOption showed a brilliant turn of foot to take the G2 Challenge Stks. The @ArrowfieldStud #NotASingleDoubt colt ex SW Chintz was a $240k buy from @KarakaChat @CurraghmoreNZ for Pike Racing & @RafflesRacing / @HaunuiFarm / @WaikatoStud 🌟
🎥TAB Racing pic.twitter.com/IcXNAuMTHy

— ANZ Bloodstock (@anz_news) December 7, 2019

Stable representative Chris McNab’s post-race comments could apply to any of Not A Single Doubt’s best progeny.

“He’s never put a foot wrong this horse. He just ticks every box you put in front of him and he was just too good.

“With his trial, he just relaxed so beautifully and he did the same today. They didn’t go that hard early and he was running around a little bit, but he was just so good over the last 200m.”

A 2YO Group win is an important step for Not An Option’s high-powered ownership group, including Raffles Racing and leading New Zealand farms Waikato Stud & Haunui Farm, who will have an eye on his future stallion career.

Not An Option was a $240,000 Karaka Premier buy from Curraghmore Stud by Tony Pike, who also bred and raced his Group 2-winning dam Chintz (by Zabeel’s Champion Sire son Savabeel) with his parents Vicki and Wayne Pike. It’s a family notable for excellent fillies and mares including Chintz’s Group 1-winning half-sister Chenille and Group winners Seraphic, Irlanda & Torquay, with most of its male talent sold to race in Asia or South Africa.

It’s safe to say that Not An Option’s future racing will be done much closer to home. He now heads the Karaka Million 2YO Order of Entry and the $1 million race at Ellerslie on 25 January is his immediate target.

A two-time Group winner, and twice-placed at Group 1 level, Chintz was sold initially to Newhaven Park Stud who bred city-placed 3YO Our Girl Sniti (by Snitzel) from her and sent her to Not A Single Doubt. Chintz was then re-sold to Not An Option’s breeder Aquis Farm and last month foaled a filly by resident stallion (and Arrowfield Group 1-winning Magic Millions graduate) Invader.

Not An Option is Not A Single Doubt’s 24^th juvenile stakeswinner and his fifth stakeswinner this season following Group 1 winners Samadoubt & Scales of Justice, Hong Kong Group 3 winner Southern Legend and Samizdat, a Group 3 winner in Perth.

Widely admired for his rise from six seasons at the bottom of Arrowfield’s roster to a full book this year at a career-high fee of $110,000, Not A Single Doubt’s record makes his true class crystal-clear. More than half of his 67 stakeswinners and their 141 stakes wins have been achieved in Group company. They include 15 Group 1 wins in almost every category, from the Blue Diamond (by Miracles of Life & Extreme Choice) & 3YO Classics (Qafila & Mighty Boss) to weight-for-age sprints (Extreme Choice, Miracles of Life, Samadoubt, Secret Agenda & Scales of Justice), metric miles (Kenedna, Good Project, Scales of Justice) & middle-distance tests (Single Gaze & Kenedna).

Not An Option is the only named foal so far bred on the Not A Single Doubt/Savabeel cross, but the brilliant son of Redoute’s Choice has proved effective with mares by several other Classic & staying sires. Significant results include Group 1 winners Kenedna (damsire is Falbrav) & Clearly Innocent (Zabeel), Group 2 winner Don’t Doubt Mamma (Fantastic Light), Group 3 winners Southern Legend (Carnegie), Castlethorpe (Sadler’s Wells) & Special Alert (Jeune) and Listed winners Doubt Defying (Street Cry),  Single Spice (Galileo) & Westport (Shamardal).

Not A Single Doubt’s 38-lot consignment at Magic Millions 2020 includes four fillies and a colt offered by Arrowfield, out of mares by Azamour, More Than Ready, Northern Meteor, Deep Impact & Galileo.