When a $15 chance at only her fourth start leads a quality field into the home straight in the $500,000 ATC Vinery Stud S. 2000m G1, her best hope seems to be to hang on for third or fourth as the favourites loom up behind her.
A couple of things turn hope into distinct possibility: she’s trained by Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott and she’s by Not A Single Doubt. First Nudge, then Funstar and then Probabeel look capable of getting past her, but she’s still in front at the 200-metre mark and she’s still there at the finish.
And with a name that is both wonderfully appropriate for the occasion and sadly ironic during the COVID-19 pandemic, that’s how Shout The Bar sparks a series of necessarily isolated, but nevertheless joyful celebrations.
Adam Hyeronimus has ridden Shout The Bar throughout her 3-trial, 4-start career and his faith in her was rock-solid. He said, “Not once at any stage did I think she is going to win.
“I didn’t want it to turn into a sit and sprint because I know that she is tough and I knew that she would run a strong 2000m, and I said that all along.
“From her second trial I said to Adrian this is our Oaks horse and she hasn’t let us down yet.”
Shout The Bar is now the $4.50 second favourite for the $500,000 Australian Oaks G1, scheduled for Day 2 of The Championships on 11 April.
Offered for sale by Newhaven Park on behalf of her breeders Ron Finemore & John Leaver, Shout The Bar was bought for $200,000 by her trainers at the Magic Millions Sale and carries the silks of well-known owners Francis & Christine Cook who race her with a group of friends.
She is the first foal of the city winner Drinks All Round (by O’Reilly) from a family nurtured by Kiwi breeders Vicki & Wayne Pike that has previously produced Doncaster Mile & George Ryder Stakes winner Rangirangdoo and multiple Group winner Satinka.
Ron Finemore recalls the purchase of Drinks All Round as a yearling from Karaka in 2010. “We liked her a lot, she was athletic and correct in every way, and we were trying to buy fillies to race, then breed with, from families with a Group 1 winner not too far back, and Danehill-free so they could go to Australian sires, especially Not A Single Doubt.”
Ron has been a key member of Not A Single Doubt’s cheer squad ever since he bought into him as a yearling at the 2003 Magic Millions Sale and subsequently retained shares in him as a stallion.
Ron says, “Not A Single Doubt has been everything to me, he gave us thrills on the racetrack, he’s paid for all my breeding and racing and every dollar I get, I put back into the industry.”
Three of Ron’s mares are in foal to Not A Single Doubt including Drinks All Round who has two other fillies by him: an unraced 2YO named She’s A Survivor and retained by Finemore Thoroughbreds, and a yearling in Segenhoe Stud’s Inglis Easter draft.
Shout The Bar is Not A Single Doubt’s 13th Group 1 winner and his second in eight days following last weekend’s Golden Slipper victory by Farnan – also sent out by the formidable Tulloch Lodge operation. Those two major wins, plus another 19 since 1 March, have pushed Not A Single Doubt’s Australian season earnings past $10 million, enough to hold 4th spot on the current General Sires’ Premiership, behind Pierro, I Am Invincible & Snitzel.
Shout The Bar is the fourth Not A Single Doubt filly to claim a Group 1 win at 2000 metres or beyond, after Kenedna (2019 Doomben Cup, 2000m), Qafila (2019 South Australian Derby, 2500m) & Single Gaze, who won the 2016 Vinery Stud Stakes and was 2nd in the 2017 Caulfield Cup G1 over 2400 metres.
The Inglis Easter Sale includes 18 Not A Single Doubt yearlings, while Arrowfield’s Easter draft, now for sale by private treaty, includes two Not A Single Doubt fillies – view the catalogue here.
