One of Tasmania’s star gallopers of the 1980s Sovereign Notion was acknowledged for his greatness by being inducted into the Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame at the annual thoroughbred awards night at Wrest Point Casino last night.
Sovereign Notion arrived in Tasmania in 1985 having spent most of his previous racing life in the care of top Victorian trainer Colin Hayes who trained the gelding for Robert Sangster.
He was purchased sight unseen for $18,000 and was raced in Tasmania by Brian Heffernan, Peter Gardiner, Kevin Estcourt and the late Bernie Gorman.
The gelding performed well in his first season in the care of astute Tasmanian trainer Stafford Devine but it was in the summer of the 1986-87 season that the excelled.
During that season he won four weight-for-age races in the space of five starts over eight weeks to take his season win tally to eight wins that earned him the Horse of the Year title.
He collected a track record in winning the weight-for-age Mowbray Stakes over 1600m and he went close to repeating that feat in the Tasmanian Stakes.
He was entered for the Hobart Cup but failed to run out the distance but so talented was he that Devine prepared him to win a weight-for-age race over 1100 metres at his subsequent start three weeks later.
Sovereign Notion had to be well managed by his trainer owing to a nearside foreleg tendon problem. Most pundits of the era claimed he could have been a world beater had he been fully sound.
Sovereign Notion is a welcome inclusion into the Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame.