3 minute read
The defeat of Coolmore's So You Think (NZ) in Wednesday's Group 1 Prince of Wake's Stakes (2000m) at Royal Ascot by the Godolphin four-year-old entire Rewilding has been under scrutiny around the racing world with punters reeling from the neck defeat, and purists discussing the race tactics of the Aidan O'Brien stable.
Punters had snapped up the short odds offered for So You Think with $1.30 on offer by TAB Sportsbet and the High Chaparral entire was the $1.10 favourite with NSW TAB and $1.20 favourite with STAB.
Rewilding paid $11.60 with NSW TAB and $10.80 with STAB, while he was offered at $11.00 on Fixed Odds.
In the race they had to watch jockey Ryan Moore take So You Think to the lead as they entered the main straight with some 500m still to run after chasing down the pacemaker Jan Vermeer with O'Brian's son Joseph riding. Jan Vermeer had been 8L in front with 800m to travel and he tired quickly on the turn as So You Think sped past.
Frankie Dettori on Rewilding had settled at the rear watching the pace up front and then he had the length of the straight to get on terms with So You Think, who was labouring over the final sectional. To the chagrin of the punters who had taken the short odds Rewilding achieved the task and went by for the neck win.
The race was run in 2.04.24, which was 1.76s faster than standard so it was not surprising that So You Think found the hill to the Ascot finish line hard work.
Back in Sydney the master trainer Bart Cummings, who trained So You Think to champion status, had watched the race with considerable interest, and as usual succinctly summed up the race.
“I thought he looked very well and he will certainly improve with the run,” he said on Sky Sports Radio.
“He over raced and was rather fresh, he pulled a little bit, but I just think where the winner was is where I would have liked him to have been, and he (Ryan) may have gone far too early, that's what I say,” he said.
Cummings also had a definitive opinion on the UK practice if using pacemakers.
“I think it is completely unnecessary and they cause too much trouble. We are on the right track in Australia barring that idea,” he said.
He said that he thought that when Jan Vermeer quickly went past So You Think that the action stirred up So You Think for Moore who was forced to spend time settling his mount,
“He pulled quite a bit,” he said.
“In a mile and a quarter race (2000m) in Australia you only go to the lead in the half-furlong (100m), and that where the winner (Rewilding) was on that occasion in England,” he added.
Cummings said that he thought that So You Think would improve 'greatly' from the race.
“The experience will educate O'Brien to do what the horse probably needs. I think the future is still pretty good,” he said.
He said that he thought that Tom Queally's ride on Frankel in the Group 2 St James Place Stakes on Tuesday, when Queally also sent his horse to the front coming off the turn, had placed Frankel in an almost 'impossible' position, and that he was lucky to win.
“Maybe he was fitter than So You Think, but what he did was remarkable,” he said.
O'Brien said immediately after the race: “I will take responsibility for this personally. After he won his first two races so easily I had gone easy on him.
“It was a big step up on his last two races. He ran keen for the first two furlongs with Ryan and it was a strong-run race. He went and won his race but just got very tired in the last half a furlong.
“Frankie gave his horse a beautiful ride, on a horse that stays a mile and a half well; he just came and got him in the last 50 yards. I think it was trainer error, I didn't have him fit enough for this kind of race and he's given a good blow afterwards.
“I would think there's improvement to come.
“Something like the Eclipse is a definite possible but like always we hadn't looked beyond today,” he said.
“We all expected him to win, I expected him to win, but that's the game, it does not work like that, nothing is a given,” said Stephen Arnold, So You Think's Australian jockey.
Arnold rode Star Witness into second in the Group 1 King's Stand Stakes over 1000m on Tuesday.
He will be backing up on the Danny O'Brien colt on Saturday in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (1200m) after O'Brien indicated that the Starcraft colt will take his place in the race.