So You Think reigns supreme with extraordinary Group 1 treble at Randwick

Coolmore Stud resident So You Think enjoyed a host of memorable days on the racetrack but on Saturday the son of High Chaparral went some way to eclipsing even his own extraordinary talents as a racehorse when he sired a historic Group 1 treble at Randwick and in the process propelled himself to the top of Australia’s leading sires’ championship.

The stallion’s stunning hour and a half was kicked off by Knights Order’s triumph in the Sydney Cup, while Think It Over followed up in the next race on the card, the time-honoured Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the hat-trick was rounded off by Nimalee’s victory in the Queen Of The Turf.

After his unbelievable day, So You Think was sitting in pole position in the race to be crowned Australia’s champion sire by earnings with A$15,706,346 (£9.0m/€10.8m) in prize-money. I Am Invincible is just off the pace in second with A$15,446,952 and Nature Strip’s sire Nicconi - who was leading at the beginning of the day - is now in third with A$15,095,779.

So You Think understandably stole the show, but it was a successful day for Coolmore Stud overall, with the stallion’s barnmates Pierro and Pride Of Dubai also siring stakes winners on the card, meaning 50 per cent of the races run at Randwick were won by sires standing at the breeding powerhouse's Jerrys Plains base.

Having landed last season’s George Ryder Stakes, Think It Over brought up his second elite-level win, with the maiden top-flight successes for both Nimalee and Knights Order meaning So You Think is now the sire of nine individual Group 1 winners.

Coolmore Australia’s farm manager John Kennedy was effusive in his praise.

“It was unbelievable. He is some sire isn’t he? He is just such a consistently good and versatile sire," he said. "Every weekend when we go through the races we never have to worry about So You Think, he is always producing the goods for us at the farm and he is always keeping the flag up high in the air and today he really showed what an incredible stallion he really is.

“They say the cream rises to the top and that is exactly what So You Think has done today. It’s just been incredible. He proves it is not just about the speed horses over here, a lot of the prize-money is gravitating towards those middle distance races and I think the breeders are starting to latch on to that and it just goes to show that when you breed a mare to a good middle distance stallion like So You Think you will get the rewards on the race track.”

A ten-time Group 1 winner, landing five in Australia, headlined by two victories in the Cox Plate, So You Think also won five in Europe, including the 2012 edition of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, to prove himself a top-class racehorse on both sides of the planet. Kennedy said the secret to his success in the breeding barn is that he instills many of his best qualities in his progeny.

“He puts soundness into his progeny, which is very important when you are breeding horses, everyone wants them to be sound,” he said. “They have great temperaments and they love their work, as he did himself, and they are very versatile animals, they can run over different distances on a variety of grounds and they really cope well with training regimes over here.

“So You Think himself was an incredible racehorse, a ten-time Group 1 winner and proved to be top-class in both hemispheres and he has got an unbelievable engine in him.

“Aidan O’Brien and Joseph always ask after him, he has a worldwide following and he is really after cementing himself here now and I believe the best is yet to come.

“He is a really good-looking horse with unbelievable quality and he really catches your eye. There are not many people who come through the gates of Coolmore who don’t ask to see him and I think everyday one of the guys in the barn, who looks after him, comments on how lucky they are to be involved with a horse like So You Think.”

Perhaps sharing a fragment of the limelight with So You Think was jockey Nash Rawiller, whose move in steering the Kerry Parker-trained Think It Over to the outside fence in the straight in search of better ground proved a masterstroke as he ground down the brave front-running Zaaki.

Knights Order, who ran his rivals ragged in the Sydney Cup, was bred in Ireland, where So You Think shuttled for four seasons between 2013-2016. Known as Knight Errant when trained by William Jarvis in Britain, the Melbourne Cup prospect becomes the first northern hemisphere-bred Group 1 winner for his sire.

The Matthew Smith-trained Nimalee put her rivals to the sword with an impressive triumph in the Queen Of The Turf and in doing so provided Damien Oliver with Group 1 victory number 127, which saw him overtake legendary jockey George Moore.

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