It looks as if we can finally put to bed the debate about the greatness (or lack thereof) of So You Think after today's Champion Stakes. To paraphrase the Irish football pundit Eamon Dunphy; "He's a good horse but he's not a great horse". It was worth it alone to see him get beat when Jim McGrath referred to him as "The Aussie Champ" when he looked like he might win it 2 furlongs out. With all due respect to Cirrus Des Aigles, he too is a good horse but not a great horse. So to all the Aussies who thought he was the second coming of Phar Lap, he clearly isn't, but perhaps the likes of Bart Cummings et al might put the blame on Aidan O'Brien for disimproving him by a stone.
Has the horse gone backwards since coming here, or is our distaff racing just stronger than australias. I'm sure its the former because SYT looks to have ran to a similar level in all his races in the northern hemisphere
i dont think hes any worse at all reverse the situation and you have the likes of my kingdom of fife,speed gifted ,all the good and taufans melody way back form the 90s to present day winning group 1 middles distance races in oz but only been group 3 at best in the uk.taufans melody actually came back after winning the caulfield cup and reverted back to been listed class. my best guess is based on the those horses,plus also glass harmonium as well almost winning a oz gp1 this season and syt winning by 3 lengths + easy that they are on average about 4 lengths behind at 1m2f -1m4f. starcraft and elvestroem tried the middle distance races here but where not as good and never won by as far as so you think did back in oz. hes a super horse,amazing consistent animal and i dont believe he ran much more below his average form in the arc but would say 1m2f is a slightly better distance for him imo but he's not a superstar that many expected !!
Can i clarify i meant the later in my post, i think our middle distance horses are stronger, noticed it reads quite confusingly SYT has run well and consistantly but he's no great
It does put the debate about Ballydoyle jockeys to bed - after that joke of a ride from Heffernan in the Arc SYT got the best possible assistance from Ryan Moore today - raced handily, attacked Nathanial at the right point and was just outpointed by the winner who is another horse (like the Arc winner) who may have crept under the radar of Briitish punters. His form in France was pretty impressive - never finished outside the first 2 and just touched off by Byword and Sarafina this year.
I have just wrote a similar article, I was obviously writing it as you put this up, I do apologise. The Aussies will sit there and blame AOB, though they are clearly in denial. AOB is a far better trainer than Bart Cummings. Bart Cummings has won races in one country, that is it, he is not in the same league as AOB, as far as world wide reputation goes. So if anything SYT probably improved under AOB. The horse is a good horse, but not a great one. Bart Cummings arrogantly criticised our racing, as if it was 2nd rate, yet his champ has been well and truly exposed, and in the process made Aussie racing look very mediocre indeed. SYT was made to look like Pegasus out there, he was considered the best middle distance horse in Aussie racing history, yet he is just a good G1 horse in Europe. Bart Cummings is tucking into a big slice of humble pie, as we speak
He has now finished within 1/2 length of Snow Fairy in his last three races. That looks like it is as good as he is. He promised to be brilliant, i thought he was early in the season but it turns out that he is just very good. I backed him today because i thought everything was in his favour. In the end the race was run perfectly for him and Moore gave him a perfect ride. Cirrus Des Aigles was just too good. He is an admirable horse and one with tremendous ability but i don't think there can be any doubt now that he is not the monstrous wonder horse that many had hoped, myself included.
There is only 1 monstrous wonder and there will only be 1 for a very long time (maybe just the 1 in our lifetime)
Agree with you Shergar. Aussie racing is certainly behind ours and So You Think has simply not been good enough to dominate over here. He's very good and admirably tough but no superstar.
Australian racing is behind ours in the middle distance division, but So You Think has proved that there is not an awful lot betweem them. Australian Sprinters, on the other hand, are on a different planet to ours.
He is a smashing horse and a genuine global G1 contender but no superstar.I would be amazed,after todays result,that he isn't retired...nothing to be gained racing next year against a new crop of young guns as a six year old.He does possess a strong constitution and I think the BC will be his swan song.If his offspring possess his conformation he will be a very successful stallion,here and shuttling. The uber hype for this horse came mainly from the media if one refers to previous tabloid prose,not connections.
I think that So You Think has pretty much run to the same level of form all season here in the Northern Hemisphere. He may well be a superstar in Australia but that is maybe more of an indication of how ordinary their middle distance horses are compared to Europe. Bart Cummings was clearly talking out of the orifice that he should have been sitting on. In the Champion Stakes he was a very well held second and there were no hard luck stories for him. Had Snow Fairy enjoyed a better passage, she might have demoted him to third. The race was strongly run but the winner is not really a top performer as his record this season did show that he had never been out of the first two but this was definitely an improvement on his defeat at Longchamp by Byword on Arc weekend and he had been beaten by a couple of other top performers.
