Strong Word of Mouth for Not A Single Doubt
It’s a good time of year to spot a few likely prospects for next season and one of them appeared on Saturday at Flemington.
His name is Word Of Mouth and he prevailed in a hard-fought battle with Leventi for the $80,000 Rod Johnson Handicap over 2000 metres.
However, no sooner had the 3YO son of Not A Single Doubt returned to scale than trainer Leon Corstens said that “he is a good horse in the making” and would not return to racing until next Autumn.
Surprisingly, Corstens believes Word Of Mouth will be suited by longer races.
He said, “I almost wish it had been a bit longer half way down the straight. I didn’t think he was going to get there, I thought ‘the leader was going to hang on.’
“I think down the track we will take the blinkers off him. I think he will settle better and he’ll get over a bit more ground.”
The only real clues to Word Of Mouth’s liking for distances beyond 1600 metres can be found in his own record which features a couple of recent wins in country company over 1980 & 2015 metres.
His immediate pedigree is not an obvious source of his stamina, though it does include a few winners beyond sprint distances. Word Of Mouth’s dam Exo (by Hennessy) is also the dam of juvenile stakeswinner Diamond Pegasus and three other winners, including two colts by Galileo that won over ground. Further back the family has produced Adventurous, a winner in black type company up to 2000 metres, and Permaiscuous (by Danzero), successful in the 1600-metre VRC Carbine Club S. G3.
Not A Single Doubt was himself a notably precocious 2YO, eight of his 22 stakeswinners have earned black type at that age; and he is Australia’s current leading sire of juvenile winners. That said, his record does include seven stakeswinners at 1600 metres and beyond: Always Certain, Doubtful Jack, Castlethorpe, Every Faith, Gypsy Diamond, Mystic Power and My Ex Mate, winner of the 2600-metre SAJC Lord Reims S. G3.
Word Of Mouth is a fine prospect to join that group in the second half of next season, but he’s already extended a good story for Melbourne businessman Peter Arvanitis who bought him as a weanling, and sold him through the Swettenham Stud draft at the 2012 Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale. The successful buyer at $150,000 – the second-highest price paid for a Not A Single Doubt yearling at the Sale – was syndicator Brad Spicer.
Word Of Mouth was one half of a Saturday city double for Spicer Thoroughbreds whose clients also cheered home Amovatio at Rosehill.
Not A Single Doubt has now been represented by 29 winners of 32 Australian and offshore races since 1 May, and seven winners in the past 7 days.
