14th Group 1 winner for Not A Single Doubt .
Australian-bred Southern Legend (7 g ex Donna's Appeal by Carnegie) scored a gutsy win in Sunday's Champion Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) at Sha Tin and in doing so provided his now pensioned sire Not A Single Doubt (Redoute's Choice) with his 14th Group 1 winner.
Trained by Caspar Fownes and Ridden by Vincent Ho, Southern Legend defeated the John Moore-trained favourite Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) by a short-head, with Waikuku (Harbour Watch) another two and three quarter lengths back in third.
"We had the opportunity to set Southern Legend and go for the Singapore race, to try and go for three wins in a row there, but when this virus hit we had to change plans pretty quickly," Fownes said.
"He's beaten the best on their day, there's no doubt about that – when horses were flying, he beat Pakistan Star, Nothingilikemore and now the best horse Hong Kong's ever seen, Beauty Generation."
The victory also provided Southern Legend's jockey with his first Group 1 victory.
"I didn't jump that sharply, maybe because the visor was off, but I got a good spot and the pace was actually quite slow. Southern Legend had won at 1800 and he'd gone 2000 metres as well, so when they went that slowly I decided to take off at the 600 (metres) and he got a really good kick and sustained it to the end," said Ho.
John Moore was paid tribute to Beauty Generation and said that he would like to take him to Australia when he retires from training in Hong Kong at the end of the season.
"I'd like to take him back for a mile race in Australia and then have him stay there at the Living Legends Farm. That's what I'd like to do but what the Kwok family wants to do is what counts, I don't know whether they'll keep racing him or retire him," said Moore.
Sold by his breeder Corumbene Stud for $280,000 to Carmel Size and Neville Begg at the 2014 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, Southern Legend has now won 12 of his 40 starts with earnings of just over $7.6 million.
He is one of four winners, and the only stakes winner, out of winning Carnegie (Sadler's Wells) mare Donna's Appeal. His second dam is dual Listed winner Donna Natalia (Anabaa) who ran third in the 2001 Silver Slipper Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m), whilst further back this is the family of Galaxy Handicap (Gr 1, 1100m) winner and sire Charge Forward (Red Ransom).
Donna's Appeal was covered by Dundeel (High Chaparral) last season having produced a colt by Epaulette (Commands) in October.
Not A Single Doubt stood at Arrowfield Stud for 14 seasons between 2005 and 2019 and it was announced earlier this year that the son of Redoute's Choice had been pensioned from stud duties. He has sired 71 stakes winners to date and is currently fourth in the Australian leading sires table by earnings.
