'Perfection on four legs': Vale So You Think

Cover image courtesy of Coolmore

On Monday afternoon, Coolmore Stud announced the passing of resident So You Think (NZ), the globe-trotting 10-time Group 1 winner and the sire of 66 stakes winners to date. The stallion was 19 years old.

In a press release shared via X, Coolmore said, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of 10-time Group 1 winner and leading sire So You Think, after succumbing to a short illness while receiving world-class care from the team at Scone Equine Hospital.

“So You Think was described by his trainer Bart Cummings as ‘perfection on four legs, you don’t get any better than him, he is the finest, most genuine horse I have ever trained’. The striking son of High Chaparral and two-time Cox Plate winner was purchased by Duncan Ramage for NZ$110,000 on behalf of Dato Tan Chin Nam at the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale. A 5-time Group 1 winner on both continents for both Bart Cummings and Aidan O’Brien, he will long be remembered as one of the all-time-greats.”

Coolmore’s Tom Magnier shared his thoughts in the post, “When people visit Coolmore, more often than not the stallion most of them really want to see is So You Think. He was an absolute gentleman, an incredibly kind and intelligent horse and this is a sad day for all the staff that have looked after him so well at Coolmore since he retired in 2012.

“We are so lucky to have had him and watch him develop into one of the country’s truly elite sires. He provided me with so many great memories on racetracks throughout the world as both a racehorse and a stallion. I will never forget the day he sired three Group 1 winners in a day at Randwick in 2022, but equally the day he provided Joseph O’Brien with his first Royal Ascot winner as a jockey in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 2012.”

The press release continued, “So You Think is a sire that will be remembered for his remarkable consistency, finishing in the top 10 on the sires table for each of the last 5 seasons and coming second to I Am Invincible on two occasions. He is already responsible for 12 individual Group 1 winners, but with the likes of Revelare, Getta Good Feeling, Oh Diamond Lil, and Saturday’s Group 3 winner Diamond Scene to continue to run for him, this figure looks set to continue to climb well into the future.”

A true talent

The most decorated son of High Chaparral (Ire), So You Think was a proud graduate of Windsor Park Stud’s draft at the 2008 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale. His dam Triassic (NZ) (Tights {USA}) was the winner of the G2 Sir Tristram Fillies Classic and the Listed Soliloquy Stakes en route to stud, where she produced 10 named foals - of which her son by High Chaparral was undoubtedly the best.

Sent to the stable of Bart Cummings, So You Think was a winner on debut as a 2-year-old, but his brilliance would unfold over the following three seasons where he would truly cement himself a champion. The following spring, in 2009, he earned himself his first shot at the G1 Cox Plate and duly saluted for Glen Boss, two and a half lengths clear of his nearest rival. As a testament to his strength and maturity, the November-born foal was two weeks short of his third birthday when collecting his first Group 1 win.

Saved for the late winter and spring in 2010, the newly-turned 4-year-old entire was almost unstoppable in his spring carnival demolition that included four Group 1 wins - a second Cox Plate among them - and culminated in a third in the G1 Melbourne Cup, incredibly just three days after his victory in the G1 Mackinnon Stakes. All of his spring runs were under jockey Steve Arnold, who would say the following June, “I felt like I should wipe my feet before I got on him.”

Arnold said those words to The Guardian days before the colt would run second in the G1 Prince Of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot, off of the back of two wins at The Curragh. At this point, he had been sent to the stables of Aidan O’Brien for a Northern Hemisphere offensive. So You Think was beaten by a short neck that day - he would get revenge the following year.

But in the meantime, the entire added the G1 Coral Eclipse Stakes and the G1 Irish Champion Stakes to his resume, before heading on his world tour that saw him run fourth in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, sixth in a G1 Breeders’ Cup, and fourth in the G1 Dubai World Cup at Meydaan.

So You Think was determined to go out on a high though. He returned to Ireland following his tour and, eight weeks later, took home a second, consecutive G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh. Four weeks later, he would avenge his 2011 Royal Ascot defeat and put two and a quarter lengths on Carlton House (USA) to win the Prince Of Wales at his second attempt.

A hero at stud

It was a hero’s welcome that met So You Think when he arrived at Coolmore Australia in 2012 for his first season at stud, which is entirely reasonable given his globe-trotting performances. His Southern Hemisphere book sizes reflect that, with the smallest book in his first decade at stud still being a healthy number at 139 mares.

His first crop produced eight stakes winners of 17 stakes races in total, including G1 New Zealand One Thousand Guineas winner La Bella Diosa (NZ), G1 Randwick Guineas winner Inference, and the multiple stakes-winning, 95-time starter So Si Bon who was a true showcase of his sire’s strength and longevity across eight seasons of racing.

The winners have never stopped coming since; among his 66 stakes winners are 12 Group 1 winners, with G1 Queensland Oaks winner You Wahng the latest addition to his top flight winners, and a further 50 of his progeny have performed at stakes level. His 10 crops of racing age have delivered 761 winners worldwide in 23 countries, and have amassed nearly $143 million in prizemoney to date.

Gallery: Some Group 1 winners by So You Think

This season alone, approximately every thirteenth individual Australian winner has been a stakes winner, and Diamond Scene added her name to his honour roll this past Saturday in the G3 Eurythmic Stakes.

What has been the greatest reward and the greatest delight for breeders has been the sheer versatility of So You Think’s offspring. While he himself was a champion middle-distance horse on home soil and overseas, he produced the likes of Think It Over, a 14-time winner from 1300 metres to 2000 metres and three times at Group 1 level, The Everest champion Think About It, and the 3200-metre G1 Sydney Cup winner Knights Order. His offspring have won the G1 Australian Derby, three different G1 Guineas races, two G1 Oaks, and stakes races in five countries.

Already, his offspring are forging their own paths at stud; his sire sons D’Argento, Peltzer, and Tamasa have sired their first stakes winners, the latter doing so from only three runners. His daughters have produced G1 Golden Slipper Stakes victress Fireburn (Rebel Dane) and G1 Deauville Prix Jean Prat winner Puchkine (Fr), as well as last season’s electric juvenile Rivellino (Too Darn Hot {GB}), amongst eight stakes winners.

Gallery: Some of the sons of So You Think standing at stud

The honour roll

It feels like one is rushing through So You Think’s achievements, but that is only because there are so many, and with the knowledge that there is no hard line drawn beneath his name. Coolmore’s late champion, who currently sits in 11th spot on the general sires’ table by mere dollars, has so much more left to give. There will be one more crop of So You Think foals born to lucky broodmares in 2026, and, given the robustness of his current offspring, we can expect to see his name as sire on form guides for years to come.

In the meantime, the racing and breeding communities will mourn the loss of another star well before his time.

“It’s a funny thing, these animals get to you as much as close human beings would,” Duncan Ramage said on Monday.

After his first Gold Cup win at The Curragh in 2011, Aidan O’Brien told the Press Association, “So You Think looks very special and is an incredible athlete. He just does everything so incredibly easily it’s hard to believe. He’s incredibly exciting and something like him you don’t see very often.

“There’s a chance that we’ve never seen anything like this horse before, so we’re just so grateful and privileged to have him.”

Some fourteen years later, grateful and privileged still rings true.