So You Think and Lonhro - Stars on the track and in the barn

Foaled six years apart on opposite sides of the Tasman Sea, Lonhro and So You Think (NZ) would go on to win 21 Group 1s between them and lay claim to be the best-performed weight-for-age horses in Australia to retire as stallions in the 21st century.

As racehorses both were late foals that performed at a remarkably high level across multiple seasons. Lonhro won 11 Group 1 races and So You Think 10 (across three countries). Both were trained in Australia by icons of the industry, the former by John Hawkes, the latter by Bart Cummings.

Lonhro, who won Group 1 races from 1400 metres to 2000 metres, was crowned Australian Racehorse of the Year in 2003/04. So You Think never claimed that honour, as he featured in the same era as a once-in-a-lifetime superstar in Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) and, he then headed off overseas after the spring of his 4-year-old season, but he did win the one major race that eluded Lonhro, the G1 Cox Plate, twice.

Gallery: So You Think (NZ) and Lonhro when racing, images courtesy of Sportpix

Lonhro won 26 of 35 starts and So You Think 14 of 23 and both produced equine perfection in their best racetrack moments. For Lonhro that was exclusively within Australia, while So You Think took on the world and added five more Group 1 wins under the tutelage of Aidan O'Brien to the five he had won in Australia under Cummings.

Second careers

What enabled them to continue their extraordinary legacy was that they remained entires. They were given their shot as top stallions as Woodlands/Darley and Coolmore, respectively.

Both were given a chance to shuttle, Lonhro to the USA and So You Think to Ireland, but it is in Australia that they have sewn the vast majority of their success.

On Saturday, So You Think had a banner day, unprecedented in Australian history, when three of his progeny won Group 1 races at Randwick. As first Knights Order (Ire), then Think It Over and then Nimalee saluted, the day built into a moment of celebration for the son of High Chaparral (Ire), and one which catapults him to the status among Australia's elite sires.

Gallery: So You Think's (NZ) three Group 1 winners that won at Randwick on Saturday, images courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

Lonhro hasn't quite had a banner day of those proportions but does have a title that So You Think is yet to win, which is that of Champion Australian Sire, an achievement reached in 2010/11, the same season So You Think was dominating on the track.

So You Think currently leads the 2021/22 Sires' race, so could match Lonhro should he hold off several rivals this season.

So with such parallels between these two stars of the track who have taken that talent into the breeding barn, how do the two compare at the same stages of their careers? It won't surprise that their records are quite similar.

We examined Lonhro's stud record up until April 11, 2014, the same point So You Think now finds himself at.

Head to head

To this point, So You Think has had more winners, 465 to 431, from more runners, 683 to 617, but it is Lonhro who had more stakes winners, 43 as compared to 38.

So You Think, thanks partly to Saturday's heroics, has more Group 1 winners at the same stage of his career, nine to six. At Group 2 level, the ledger is nine to eight in Lonhro's favour, while So You Think has more Group 3 winners, 10 to nine.

Given their relatively profile as racehorses, it won’t shock that Lonhro, to this point of his career, had a much greater proportion of 2-year-old winners (66 to SYT's 33) and juvenile stakes winners, seven to two, a list which of course includes 2-year-old Triple Crown winner Pierro.

So You Think has more 3-year-old stakes winners at the same stage as Lonhro, 19 to 17, but interestingly at four and above, Lonhro, as of April 11, 2014, had 25 stakes winners, as compared to SYT, who has 21.

So You Think does have much more winners in that older age range with 331 individual winners. In fact, 62 per cent of racetrack wins for So You Think's progeny have been by horses aged four and older. Lonhro's rate at the same point of his career was 55.4 per cent.

Breaking their respective success down by the sexes and Lonhro holds the edge when it comes to both stakes-winning sons and stakes-winning daughters. At the same stage of his stud career, Lonhro had 23 stakes-winning sons, with So You Think on 21, while Lonhro had 20 black-type winning fillies, while SYT's current total is 17.

Lonhro's edge in this department is achieved despite him having much fewer fillies hit the track at that stage (288 to SYT's 353) and fewer daughters who were winners (168 to 223).

Table: *up until April 12, 2014

In terms of bringing their genetic power together, there have been relatively few attempts to cross their blood. There have been just four runners by So You Think out of Lonhro mares, and just one winner, the multiple stakes winner So Si Bon, who incidentally is out of Lonhro's first-ever stakes winner, Black Minx.

There has not been a single named horse as yet by Lonhro out of a So You Think mare.

Leaving a legacy

Lonhro, now the sire of 94 stakes winners, is leaving a lasting legacy through his sons and daughters at stud as well.

In terms of his sire sons, Coolmore's Pierro, a sire of 28 stakes winners in his own right, leads the way, while Twin Hills Stud's Denman has 17 stakes winners. Demerit (six), Exosphere (four) and Sweynesse (four) all have multiple stakes winners.

Gallery: Lonhro's sire sons

Pierro also has three of his own sons at stud in Australia including Group 1 winners Pierata and Levendi.

As a broodmare sire, Lonhro's influence is only growing and his daughters have produced a total of 44 stakes winners, among them the Group 1 winner Gatting (Hard Spun {USA}).

So You Think's influence in that regard has also been to the fore through star filly Fireburn (Rebel Dane). A granddaughter of So You Think through her dam Mull Over, she has won both the G1 Golden Slipper S. and the G1 Inglis Sires' and is favoured to become the first horse since Pierro to complete the 2-year-old Triple Crown in Saturday's G1 Champagne S.

His record as a broodmare sire is in its relative infancy but his daughters have had 11 winners from 28 runners to date.

As a sire of sires, So You Think's record is even more raw, with his Group 1 winning-son Inference, a resident at Cornwall Park Stud, having had just two starters to date, one of which, Remuda, has been stakes placed.

Gallery: So You Think's (NZ) sire sons

He is one of four sons by So You Think scheduled to be at stud in Australia in 2022. D'Argento is a resident at Bowness Stud, Peltzer at Twin Hills Stud, while last week, G1 Australian Derby winner Quick Thinker found himself a future home as a stallion in Tasmania at Motree Thoroughbreds.