Just as we thought, no fuss

Racing Post’s description of Australian champion So You Think’s debut win at The Curragh in Ireland last night was that it was fuss free, and all who watched the weak Group 3 High Chaparral European Breeders Fund Mooresbridge Stakes (2000m) live on Sky2 overnight or on youtube this morning would have to agree.

With stablemate Windsor Palace setting a slow pace, the 2/13 favourite So You Think (b or br h 2006, High Chaparral (IRE)-Triassic (NZ), by Tights (USA) settled third and merely lobbed along until Seamie Heffernan gave him his head turning for home and he smoothly accelerated away on going termed “good to firm” to win without effort and without the whip.

The time was slow (2 min. 12.85 sec) and the five-horse opposition was weak, but Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien said all the right things about Coolmore’s new headliner – the breeding/racing giant bought a controlling share from Dato Tan Chin Nam after the horse’s super Group 1 spring in Melbourne for Australian training legend Bart Cummings.

“He’s an incredible horse and we’re privileged to have him,” O’Brien told At The Races.

“He’s a progeny of Australasian breeding and racing and we’d heard how special and incredible he was and when you see him you’re never surprised by him because he’s a unique specimen.

“He was just ready to start today and that was the first time we asked him to do anything.

“This horse came to us with a different aura about him than any horse that had come before (including European Group 1 winners Haradasun and Starspangledbanner), with everyone talking about him. When you see the physique of him you think they could be right.

“He’s a total professional, he travelled and he quickened and he went to the line like he was going to the start. It’s exciting for us to have him. He’s in different zone altogether.

“The plan is that he’d come back here for the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup.”

The 2000m race on May 22 could bring a clash with Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce, a 2400m specialist trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

Where to after that only Coolmore knows, but a soft kill was a great start as the stud tries to build a northern hemisphere breeding career for the stallion who won eight of 12 starts in Australia, including two Cox Plates in his five Group 1s.