So You Think, a ten-time group 1 winner turned successful Coolmore sire, has died after succumbing to a short illness while receiving treatment at Scone Equine Hospital in New South Wales. He was 19.
Coolmore Australia, where he had been standing since 2012, announced the news Oct. 20.
"When people visit Coolmore, more often than not the stallion most of them really want to see is So You Think," said farm principal Tom Magnier. "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."
So You Think's breeders Mike and Helen Moran and Piper Farm in New Zealand sent Triassic, their group 3-winning daughter of Tights, to Windsor Park's influential shuttle stallion High Chaparral. So You Think was the outcome. Sent into training with the legendary Bart Cummings for owner Dato Tan Chin Nam, So You Think made a low-key debut at Rosehill in the May of his 2-year-old season, winning by just over a length. His stakes breakthrough came in the Gloaming Stakes at Rosehill, which he backed with a fifth in the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas.
The announcement of his death comes days before the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, a race which So You Think landed twice, most famously on only his fifth start as a 3-year-old.
After adding another two group wins to his record with mind-blowing triumphs in the group 2 Memsie Stakes and group 1 Underwood Stakes as a 4-year-old, So You Think embarked on what would become one of the best spring campaigns, beginning with the successful defense of his crown in The Valley's marquee event. He backed that up with a victory in the group 1 MacKinnon Stakes a week later and showed his iron constitution with a brave third behind Americain, shouldering a colossal weight, in the Melbourne Cup (G1) three days later.
Following his successful spring carnival, Coolmore purchased So You Think and he was transferred to Aidan O'Brien. He made an instant impact with a ten-length demolition in the group 3 Mooresbridge Stakes, before chalking up the first of his five northern hemisphere group 1s in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.
He then finished a neck second to Rewilding in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot, before getting back to winning ways with impressive scores in the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes (Both G1).
So You Think then went on to finish fourth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) and second in the Champion Stakes (G1), beaten three-quarters of a length by Cirrus Des Aigles, before signing off his season with a sixth in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), one of only two occasions in which he finished out of the first four in his 23-start career.
Kept in training the following year, he finished fourth in the Dubai World Cup (G1), before retaining the Tattersalls Gold Cup. However, arguably his career defining moment came when providing Joseph O'Brien with his first Royal Ascot win in the saddle in the Prince of Wales's Stakes, which proved to be So You Think's final start.
Magnier added: "He provided me with so many great memories on racetracks throughout the world as both a racehorse and a stallion. I will never forget how 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."
Described by 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,' So You Think leaves an important legacy through his exploits as a stallion.
A dual Australian sires' premiership runner-up, his record includes 66 stakes winners headed by 12 elite-level winners, including dual top-flight winner Think About It, who won The Everest in 2023 before it had been granted group 1 status.
So You Think entered stud in 2012 at a fee of AU$66,000 and commanded a career-high fee of $99,000 in 2023 when he covered 164 mares. Last season he covered 105 mares at a fee of $77,000.
So You Think reverse shuttled to Coolmore Ireland for four seasons early in his career, resulting in four northern hemisphere-born stakes winners, the best being the imported Knights Order, whose victory in the Sydney Cup made up one third of an impressive trifecta of group 1 winners in an afternoon at Randwick for the stallion.
The stallion's daughters are ensuring his influence on both sides of the pedigree. So You Think mares have produced eight stakes winners, headed by Golden Slipper and Sires' Produce Stakes winner Fireburn and group 1 Prix Jean Prat winner Puchkine.
The news of the death of So You Think comes after a painful period for Coolmore Australia, with the operation having lost breed-shaping sire Fastnet Rock and star shuttler Wootton Bassett last month.
