Coolmore Stud insists So You Think still has much to offer on the racetrack and the breeding conglomerate has no plans to retire the Group One star despite his defeat in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“The horse has shown no signs that he is ready to go to stud,” Coolmore Australia racing manager Tom Magnier, speaking from Paris, told Sydney’s Sky Sports Radio.
So You Think ran on from the back of the field to finish fourth to Danedream, the German-trained filly who won Europe’s most prestigious race by five lengths.
“You can’t take anything away from the horse,” Magnier said.
“In the closing stages he kept fighting. He fought on and on and on.
“We are disappointed he didn’t finish closer but there is still plenty of horse to go on with.”
Industry speculation had So You Think being retired at the end of the year to join Coolmore’s stallion rosters in Ireland and Australia in 2012.
But Magnier said Aidan O’Brien believed So You Think could at least replicate his heroics of this season – the first under the Coolmore trainer’s care – next year.
“We think this horse can keep keep winning these Group One races,” Magnier said.
“The trainer thinks there is a helluva lot in the horse’s tank.
“Let’s get this season out of the way and I’d say we’d probably continue into next season.”
Since making his debut in Coolmore’s colours in early May, So You Think has raced six times and has won three Group One races – the Tatts Gold Cup at The Curragh, the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.
Magnier said So You Think’s next start could be in the Champion Stakes at Ascot during British Champions Day on October 15.
“We’ll see how he pulls up in the morning but that would be an option that would be seriously considered,” Magnier said.
Other major end-of-year targets under consideration are the Japan Cup and the Breeders Cup in the United States.
“Today didn’t go our way but he’s won an unbelievable amount of Group Ones and we want to keep showing the world what he can do,” Magnier said.
Coolmore purchased a controlling interest in So You Think after the entire finished third in last year’s Melbourne Cup for legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings.
Under Cummings, So You Think won successive Cox Plates and he would have been a short-priced favourite to emulate Kingstown Town’s hat-trick in the weight-for-age championship if this year’s edition was on his racing agenda.
AAP TURF
