CURRAGH PREVIEW:ON THE eve of the Punchestown festival, the Curragh's Bank Holiday Monday fixture might not register overly high on many Irish racing fans radar, but So You Think's first European start in the Group Three High Chaparral Mooresbridge Stakes will be compulsive night-time viewing for plenty in Australia.
The horse rated the best seen Down Under in decades, and the best ever through the hands of legendary trainer Bart Cummings, moved to Aidan O’Brien last winter in a deal worth a reported Aus$40 million (€30 million).
Just as with other Aussie stars such as Haradasun and Starspangledbanner who have been transferred to the champion trainer, the aim with So You Think is to turn him into commercially viable stallion proposition in both hemispheres for the Coolmore empire.
But So You Think comes with a lot of sentimental baggage on his back. The dual-Cox Plate winner hasn’t been seen since failing to cope with two miles in November’s Melbourne Cup, after which the big-money deal was done – to the clear unhappiness of his former trainer.
“It’s a bit like Phar Lap in the Depression,” Cummings said in reference to the almost mythical equine figurehead of Australian racing. “People need this horse. I think it is a great tragedy.”
Sentiment, however, doesn’t usually cut it in the high-octane world of top international flat racing, although there is a symmetry to the fact that So You Think’s first Northern Hemisphere start comes in a race referencing his sire, High Chaparral.
Séamus Heffernan rides the New Zealand-bred against just five opponents, and although there have been few bulletins emerging from Ballydoyle this spring about So You Think’s progress, O’Brien did say at the weekend: “He has settled really well into life at Ballydoyle and is working nicely.”
Less official bulletins suggest So You Think has made a much bigger impression than O’Brien’s comments may suggest, with even veteran observers of the fleet of superstar names which have gone through Ballydoyle over the seasons left extremely impressed by the five-year-old stallion.
Already targets such as the Prince of Wales’ Stakes at Royal Ascot, the King George in July and even the Arc in October have been mentioned in terms of So You Think’s 2011 options, but they will look extremely fanciful if he can’t win today.
O’Brien also runs Windsor Palace in the race, and while Termagant is a former Group One winner in the Moyglare, that was a couple of seasons ago and she doesn’t look up to that standard anymore.
Anything but a So You Think victory would be all but unthinkable, especially on the other side of the globe.
This afternoon’s other Group Three prize is the Athasi Stakes, where last year’s winner, Lolly For Dolly, is back for another crack at the seven-furlong event.
She barely managed to win over the course and distance last time, and both a longer trip, and softer ground, look necessary for Tommy Stack’s consistent filly.
Look At Me’s two runs last year were also on soft going, but she chased home Havant in the Rockfel Stakes and O’Brien’s willingness to run her on the forecast quick Curragh surface looks significant.
The Tetrarch Stakes is now a Listed event and it could complete an opening day race double for the Wayne Lordan-David Wachman team as Imperial Rome impressed at Dundalk while Orchestra Leader is bred to go a bit in the juvenile maiden.
Dance Secretary came up a nose short of Asheerah at Limerick last month but that looks a smart bit of form in the context of the concluding maiden.
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