Raise No Doubt 'tenacious to the line'
$323 winner wraps up great weekend for Meagher
Raise No Doubt's $323 shock victory at Kranji on Sunday may have surprised many, but not former top jockey Danny Beasley.
Now a stable supervisor to Raise No Doubt's trainer, Daniel Meagher, Beasley reckoned the George Tay-owned stalwart, who was formerly trained by Steven Gray, 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, whose wife Sabrina was taken ill.
"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."
Racing for the first time for Meagher, the seven-year-old was given a wide berth by most experts in the Class 2 race over 1,200m, presumably after his lacklustre form at his recent runs.
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 1,200m.
By coincidence, he was then handled for the first time by Sunday's winning partner, Nooresh Juglall.
Indeed, Raise No Doubt was probably one of the rare lucky runners in the race, 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 (T Krisna), he had to 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 (R Zawari), Sir Isaac (Alan Munro), Anonymous (CC Wong) 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, a head away.
The winning time was a quick 1min 09.46sec.
"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 of more than $560,000 for Tay's Maple Stars Stable.
The Meagher yard was wrapping up a fruitful weekend with a treble, having won earlier with Silver Win Fortune and with Target on Friday.
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