Westport seals Not A Single Doubt’s wonderful season
Not A Single Doubt is assembling a strong team of 2YOs for the 2020 Magic Millions Classic, nine years after it was won by his daughter Karuta Queen. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
If Not A Single Doubt’s wonderful $11.7 million season looks hard for him to top, he’s having none of it.
His 14th and likely final Australian stakeswinner of 2018/19, 2YO filly Westport is a bright prospect for the new season and she’s not alone.
She and Group-winning colts Dubious & Stronger (now in Hong Kong) are the early stars of Not A Single Doubt’s largest crop since the 2012 cohort that produced Group 1 winners Secret Agenda, Single Gaze & Scales Of Justice and nine other stakeswinners.
Saturday’s $100,000 SAJC Oaklands Plate 1400m LR was Westport’s third consecutive win and trainer Tony McEvoy was happy to share his opinion of her.
“She’s a star of the future. I just wanted to see her today at the 1400m, we’ve got that, and we also have got a Group 1 race in Sydney worth a million dollars called the Golden Rose.
“We will sit down with the owners, have a nice glass of red and decide what to do.”
Westport is the second foal of the unplaced Shamardal mare Sister Bruce, from the family of Champion 2YO Dance Hero. Offered by her breeder Torryburn Stud at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, she was knocked down to McEvoy Mitchell Racing for $220,000.
Westport is Not A Single Doubt’s 66th lifetime stakeswinner and the 23rd to earn that status at two, but the record shows that his progeny’s juvenile performance is often a prelude, rather than the main act of a brilliant career.
To extend the metaphor a little further, that gives Not A Single Doubt a full orchestra of talent to play with across several seasons, which helps to explain why he’s earned a top 5 spot on the General Sires’ premiership for three of the past 4 years, as well as a top 10 ranking on the 2YO Sires’ list every season since 2011.
Not A Single Doubt’s 2018/19 record reflects his ability to throw class in every category. His 15 stakeswinners (14 in Australia, plus 6YO Kranji Mile LR winner Southern Legend – helping Not A Single Doubt win the Singapore Sires’ Premiership) come from six crops and their 23 stakes wins extend from 1000 to 2500 metres. His two Group 1 winners both proved effective beyond sprint distances: outstanding 5YO mare Kenedna (Queen of the Turf & Doomben Cup) and Qafila, who capped her busy 3YO season with a dominant victory in the 2500-metre South Australian Derby.
View the slideshow of Not A Single Doubt’s major performers & top-priced yearlings in 2018/19:
Those 15 horses have been prepared by a dozen stables, four of them claiming two stakeswinners each: Ciaron Maher & David Eustace (Kenedna & G2 Dubious), Bjorn Baker (G2 Champagne Cuddles & SW Samadoubt), Toby Edmonds (multiple G3 winner Winter Bride & SW From Within) & Tony McEvoy (dual G3 winner Cool Passion & Westport).
Their origins and yearling prices are similarly diverse. Only Arrowfield appears as the breeder of more than one Not A Single Doubt stakeswinner (Kenedna and G3 Stronger, bred with John Leaver) while Woodpark Stud, based in the Southern Highlands, bred Qafila.
Champagne Cuddles was passed in and raced by her breeder Stuart Ramsey of Turangga Farm; breeders Michael & Jill McDermott sold Cool Passion privately; and Winter Bride is a home-bred for Segenhoe Thoroughbreds.
Not A Single Doubt’s other 12 stakeswinners were all sold as yearlings for prices ranging from the $40,000 Darby Racing paid for Samadoubt at Inglis Classic in 2015 to the $1.05 million paid three years later by James Harron for Stronger at Inglis Easter.
Auction house honours were evenly split with Inglis and Magic Millions each selling six, and Boniface Ho’s Racing Manager Carmel Size wins the buyer’s prize, signing for both Southern Legend (with her father Neville Begg) and Group 2 winner and Everest contender Classique Legend.
The 2019 yearling sales season cemented Not A Single Doubt’s place among Australia’s most in-demand stallions. Sixty of his 62 lots sold for a career-high aggregate of $18.3 million and averaged just over $305,000 – more than 3.5 times his 2015 average – and Arrowfield sold two of his colts at Inglis Easter for more than $1 million.
Few stallions have traversed the commercial landscape more broadly than Not A Single Doubt who began his career with six seasons at $12,500 and now commands $110,000 inc. GST – the fifth-highest advertised fee in the country. His fully booked status at that level is the industry’s clearest verdict on his immense worth to Australian breeding and racing.
