Multiple Group 1 winner So You Think may have his racing career extended after his name was among the entires for the Group 1 £725,000 Juddmonte International Stakes (1 mile 2 furlongs 88 yards) at York on August 22.
So You Think is among the entries for the Juddmonte International Stakes at York - photo © Taron Clarke
The World’s number one rated racehorse Frankel and Aidan O’Brien’s Investec Epsom Derby winner Camelot are also among the forty Juddmonte entries and one more run for So You Think at York is on the cards now that the O’Brien stable has the stallion racing at his highest level.
The top Irish trainer had indicated that So You Think would have one more run before commencing stud duties in Australia this Spring and a clash with the unbeaten Frankel was looking likely in the Group 1 £400,000 Coral – Eclipse (1 mile 2 furlongs 7 yards) at Sandown on July 7.
So You Think made it ten Group 1 victories when he easily won the Group 1 £400,000 150th Anniversary Of Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (1 mile 2 furlongs) at Royal Ascot on June 20 prompting O’Brien to say that he had finally found the secret to the dual Cox Plate winner.
O’Brien went as far to say he had been off the mark with his training style with So You Think and was now prepared to listen to advice coming out of Australia, in particular Bart Cummmings, for the best way to prepare the six year old.
“I think we’ve had him a year and a half and it’s taken me that long to learn how to train him. We went back and listened to what everybody was saying about him, listened to what Bart was saying and telling us what to do and what not to do. We listened at the end,” O’Brien said.
“We felt he was in a place today he’s never been in before. I was delighted to hear what Bart had to say as he was speaking from the heart and I was probably over-working the horse and galloping the speed out of him instead of letting him be natural.”
“Everyone was of the opinion before we got him that he was all speed but I started off on the wrong leg with him and tried to make him stay a mile and a half and did too much with him.”
So You Think is due to take up stud duties at Coolmore’s Australian operation where he is to stand his first season at a fee of $66,000 and O’Brien will be having discussions in an attempt to get the most out of his racing career.
“The boys will talk about the Eclipse and they will make the decision,” O’Brien said.’
“We had in our head that Sandown would be the cut-off point but we will obviously be pleading now that we have him in a different place.”
So You Think’s ten Group 1s are now evenly split between Cups King Bart Cummings and O’Brien who has prepared So You Think for five of the victories after taking over the stallion’s preparation following his third to Americain in the 2010 Melbourne Cup.
