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Raise No Doubt sprang a major upset when he repelled assaults from all over the shop to scramble home on Sunday.
Racing for the first time for trainer Daniel Meagher, the handy previous seven-time winner was given a wide berth by most experts presumably on the back of his lacklustre form at his recent runs. He last ran (it was also his last race under Stephen Gray’s care) on January 19 when last in a Kranji Stakes A race over 1400m
One had to go back to May 15, 2016 to see the Not A Single Doubt seven-year-old’s last victory which came in an Open Stakes race over 1200m. By coincidence, he was then handled for the first time by jockey Nooresh Juglall, who was again aboard at his shock $323 win on Sunday.
But Meagher’s stable supervisor, former top jockey Danny Beasley said he thought the George Tay-owned stalwart was over the odds given his more than satisfactory work on the training tracks.
“I wasn’t all that surprised to be honest. He has been working very well and his two trials were fantastic,” said Beasley filling in for Meagher.
“The riders were very happy with him and he pleased us in his work overall. He came over to us in great order from Steve.
“He was in good condition and the change of environment may have helped him. He was very tenacious to the line.”
Indeed, Raise No Doubt was probably one of the rare lucky runners in the $100,000 Class 2 race over 1200m given the few luckless runs in the fallout.
The winner himself did give his connections some concerns at some stage of the race. Settled in the perfect box-seat behind race-leader Mystic Master (Krisna Thangamani), he had to, however, hang fire with Elusive Emperor (Barend Vorster) cooping him up at the top of the straight.
Juglall eventually chose to duck right back on the rails where he eventually found all the galloping room he needed. But behind him, it was dead ends, one after another for favourite Viviano (Zawari Razali), Sir Isaac (Alan Munro), Anonymous (Wong Chin Chuen), and to a lesser degree, Al Green (Vlad Duric) and McGregor (Ryan Curatolo).
Viviano flew home when finally unleashed, but the bird had already flown. Raise No Doubt got the money by a neck from Viviano with Anonymous rattling home on the inside for third spot another head away. The winning time was 1min 9.46secs for the 1200m on the Short Course.
“A big thank you to the team for getting this horse fit and ready - I’m just the pilot. The team was quite confident with him,” said Juglall.
“Barend made it tight for us at the top of the straight, and I couldn’t come out. But my horse gave all his heart once he found daylight on the inside, even though he carried a big weight.
“I’ve now won twice from three rides on this horse. We seem to have a bit of luck together.”
Raise No Doubt has now taken his record to eight wins and nine placings from 31 starts for stakes earnings in excess of $560,000 for Tay’s Maple Stars Stable.
The Meagher yard was wrapping up a fruitful weekend with a hat-trick of wins having won earlier with Silver Win Fortune (see earlier report) and with Target on Friday night. The haul has certainly come as a tonic for the third-year trainer who sadly lost his mother-in-law to a long illness last Friday week.
Meagher was not able to be on course on Sunday as his wife Sabrina was taken ill.
“It’s been a tough last few weeks with the passing of my mother-in-law, and here I have to thank my staff for their support and all the people who have come forward with their well wishes to Sabrina and myself,” said Meagher.
“We got three wins for the week, and here, I take the opportunity to dedicate them to the memory of my mother-in-law.”