So You Think winning the 2010 W.S. Cox Plate
The Moonee Valley Racing Club (MVRC) is excited to announce the inaugural running of the ‘So You Think Stakes’, named after the Australian and New Zealand Racing Hall Of Famer and dual W.S. Cox Plate winning champion.
The So You Think Stakes is scheduled for Saturday 7 September 2024, sitting alongside the Group 1 Charter Keck Cramer Moir Stakes, and will be run over 1500 metres under Set Weights And Penalties Conditions. The race will be open to horses three years and older, with prize money of $200,000.
So You Think won the 2009 W.S. Cox Plate as a three-year-old when leading all the way under Glen Boss, before returning in 2010 as a short-priced favourite and claiming back-to-back wins, this time with Steven Arnold on board.
His 2010 Spring campaign will be remembered as one of the most dominant preparations we have seen, winning five consecutive races and four Group 1’s, before placing third in the Melbourne Cup.
The son of High Chapparal won a total of 10 Group 1 races and amassed $10.7 million in prize money. He won five of his Group 1 races in Australia under legendary trainer Bart Cummings, before winning a further five in Ireland and the UK when trained by Aidan O’Brien.
From 2010-2012 he maintained an international rating of 126, ranking him among the top eight horses in the world as assessed by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA). He also earnt a Timeform rating of 133, making him the highest-rated Australian colt of the modern era.
So You Think now stands at Coolmore Stud, where he has sired 11 individual Group 1 winners and 55 stakes winners.
MVRC Head Of Racing Charlotte Mills says the club is delighted to honour a champion with his own race at The Valley, a track where he is unbeaten.
“With the move of the Group 2 Ladbrokes Feehan Stakes to Friday 27 September, the So You Think Stakes is strategically positioned and will act as a key target early in Spring.
“So You Think is regarded as one of the greatest ever winners of the W.S. Cox Plate, a two-time champion who may have won three or four had he stayed in Australia, and now is the right time to honour him with his own race here at The Valley.
“His ability on the track matched his stunning looks and charisma off it, and it is of no surprise that he is still producing Group 1 winners at stud.”