Breaking news as of about 10 minutes ago, the Ballydoyle Twitter feed stated: "aobballydoyle ‏@aobballydoyle So You Think was found to be lame in his stable a short time ago and will not run in the Eclipse on Saturday."
Swifty, yup. He was due to go in quarantine after the race in order to head to Australia in time for their breeding season, which starts in September.
Great shame. He was a very tough and consistent horse and I often think he never got the full credit he deserved.
Shame takes a little bit of the shine of what I thought looked a nice competitive race. For the record I thought he'd be beaten anyway. Likeable, tough horse but I never really took to him, and I hope he has a long and successful stud career. Guess that paves the way for Farhh to do his thing in the Eclipse. Think he has an outstanding chance, especially now.
Before Shergar starts with his conspiracy theories . . . . It appears that both So You Think and another Ballydoyle horse (I assume a pacemaker) were declared up until about 9.48. After that they were both taken out before declarations closed at 10am. I confess that my first thought was a cynical one but it does seem to be a genuine problem (or an elaborate bluff . . .).
RV, they simply can't. He's got a full book of mares waiting for him in Oz and their owners will be furious if he is not ready for the start of the covering season on 1st September. Quarantine for Australia involves 2 or 3 weeks in isolation here and another 2 or 3 weeks on reaching Australia. All the Darley stallions are due to go into quarantine after next week's Stallion Parade. It would be like Juddmonte announcing Frankel's retirement to stud for February next year, then announcing they'll run him in the Dubai World Cup first!
As a card carrying cynic, I wonder what they were running scared of at Sandown. Great result for the ante-post layers but a huge Rule 4 for the ‘non-runner no bet’ punters that opposed the odds-on shot. They’ve used the lame excuse and packed So You Think off home, so they’ll have to come up with something else if they want to skip the St Leger with Camelot. Off colour? Running a temperature?
