So You Think, a winner of 10 group I races and $8.6 million in purses, has been officially retired after pulling a muscle in his hindquarters, it was announced July 5.
The son of High Chaparral was to have run his farewell race in the July 7 Eclipse Stakes (Eng-I) at Sandown Park, after which he was scheduled to retire. Instead he will enter quarantine July 7 and will stand at Coolmore Australia for a fee of Aust$66,000.
"So You Think is an extraordinary horse and it was a real privilege to have had him here at Ballydoyle on loan from Australia," said trainer Aidan O'Brien, who took over the 6-year-old runner from Bart Cummings to win the last five of his group I victories.
A champion 3-year-old and miler in Australia–and Ireland's highweighted older horse last year–So You Think took the 2009 and 2010 editions of the Tatts Cox Plate (Aust-I), Australia's premiere weight for age event. In 2010 he also won the New Zealand Bloodstock Memsie Stakes (Aust-II), the Rokk Ebony Underwood Stakes (Aust-I), the Caulfield Yalumba Stakes (Aust-I), and the Logines MacKinnon Stakes (Aust-I). Purchased by Coolmore and sent to Ballydoyle, he began a Northern Hemisphere campaign that resulted in victories in the 2011 editions of the High Chaparral E.B.F. Moorsebridge Stakes (Ire-III), the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Ire-II), the Coral Eclipse Stakes (Eng-I), and the Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes (Ire-I). In 2012 he won the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Ire-I) and the Prince of Wales's Stakes (Eng-I), that most recent victory coming June 20 at Royal Ascot.
"It's a big disappointment that he'll miss the Eclipse, but he's had a wonderful racing career and now it's time for him to shine at stud," said Tom Magnier of Coolmore Australia. "His book reads like a who's who of all the best mares and breeders so he'll get the best possible start."
Bred in New Zealand by M J Moran & Piper Farm out of the Tights mare Triassic, So You Think was a $85,481 yearling purchase in 2008 who first raced for Dato Tan Chin Nam and Tunku Ahmad Yahaya.
Give everything but up!
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
