So You Think (NZ) already owns a place among the greats of the Australian turf, but he has etched his name among the nation’s most exceptional stallions, with his historic Group 1 treble at Randwick on Saturday.

The Coolmore resident, a 10-time Group 1 winner in two countries on the track, never raced at The Championships, but he has now entered its folklore in the most spectacular fashion after the successive victories of Knights Order (Ire) in the Sydney Cup, Think It Over in the Queen Elizabeth S. and Nimalee in the Queen of the Turf S.

For an 80-minute period at Randwick, his progeny ruled the roost on one of Australia’s biggest racedays with the treble possibly unprecedented in Australian racing in the Group 1 era.

Only the greatest global sires have achieved the feat of three Group 1 winners on a single day, with another Coolmore star Galileo (Ire), having done it twice, in September 2020 and September 2015 while Smart Strike (USA) also did it all at the same venue in Belmont in September 2007.

For Coolmore Australia, it was a moment well worth celebrating, 10 years after So You Think first entered stud in Australia.

“The cream rises to the top on these big days. For a stallion to produce three Group 1 winners on one of the best days of racing on the calendar is an unbelievable feat,” Tom Moore, Marketing and Nominations at Coolmore Australia, told TDN AusNZ.

“For a long time, he has been one of the best stallions in Australia, but he really consolidated that today by siring the winners of the Sydney Cup, the Queen of the Turf and the Queen Elizabeth.”

So You Think’s extraordinary career has included two G1 Cox Plate wins and Group 1 success in Ireland and England, but Saturday will likely prove a match to all that he achieved in the track, and the moment was not lost on those at his home at Jerrys Plains.

“We are all at Randwick and all everyone wants to talk about is So You Think and what a great stallion he is,” Moore said. “For a sire to achieve what he has today is just incredible and it will long be remembered.”

Shooting to the top

So You Think’s extraordinary day, which also featured metropolitan winners at Doomben and Caulfield, saw him catapult to the top of the Australian Sires’ Table in what is now a four-way fight to be crowned Australian Champion Sire with Snitzel, I Am Invincible and Nicconi.

In other notable achievements out of the day, Knights Order, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, becomes the first of So You Think’s Northern Hemisphere progeny to win a Group 1 race, while the Matthew Smith-trained Nimalee took his total individual Group 1 winners to nine.

Numbers speak to a huge upside

While Saturday’s spectacular hat-trick may be a hard benchmark to reach again, the numbers tell us that So You Think will only become more and more influential in Australia.

Four seasons ago, the son of High Chaparral (Ire) broke through the 100 seasonal winners for the first time and has maintained that level ever since. Last season, he had 133 individual winners in Australia, including 12 individual stakes winners, and finished fifth in the Australian Sires’ race.

This season, he has 117 winners already in Australia and its only April.

He has huge numbers coming through as well. There are 152 of his current crop of 2-year-olds, 165 as yearlings and 176 as foals. In 2020, he was the most popular stallion in the country, with 261 mares.

Last year, with his service fee jumping to $77,000 (inc GST) from $38,500 (inc GST), his book dropped slightly to 204, but the quality of mares is pure top shelf.

“So You Think has continued to get better and better and he is still only a relatively young stallion. He continued to move his way up the stallion ranks each and every year and has established himself among the top stallions in the country,” Moore said.

“He will only continue to get better as these current and future crops come through.”

It all points to his progeny being at the pointy end of Australia’s top races for many years to come.

Ownership opportunities are available in a So You Think colt that is a full brother to G3 HKJC Celebration Cup winner Buddies, click here for more info.

Story courtesy of TDN AusNZ