AIDAN O’BRIEN may be getting ready to try to break his duck at America’s most famous racecourse with four runners at the Churchill Downs Breeders’ Cup, but Ireland’s champion trainer is already looking forward to soon having another top international name in his Ballydoyle yard as the Australian champion So You Think will join him for 2011.
A majority share in So You Think, a dual Cox Plate winner who ran third in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, is being bought by Coolmore Stud in a deal that values the son of High Chaparral at almost €42.5 million.
Reports in Australia indicate the horse will be raced in partnership with his current owners, Dato Tan Chin Nam and Turlu Ahmad Yahaya, and although final details have yet to be ironed out, Coolmore Australia’s racing manager Tom Magnier has been quoted as saying: “That is still to be finalised, but he (Chin Nam) is a very lucky owner and we’d be happy to race the horse with him.”
O’Brien said yesterday: “We’re looking forward to having him. We’ve only seen what everybody else has seen on television but he looks an unbelievable horse.”
O’Brien has a history of turning Australian imports into Group One winners in Europe, and Starspangledbanner has been retired to stud here after a pair of top-class victories in 2010 in the Golden Jubilee and the July Cup.
Haradasun also landed the Group One Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot two years ago after making the transfer to the Northern Hemisphere.
“There are still protocols in the transaction to be completed before it is signed, sealed and delivered,” said Duncan Ramage, racing manager to Dato Tan Chin Nam. “However, they are going to race and breed the horse as joint venture.”
O’Brien’s immediate focus, though, will be on Churchill Downs, where Bright Horizon ($500,000 Marathon) and Together ($1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf) fly the Ballydoyle flag tomorrow, with Beethoven (Mile) and Master Of Hounds (Juvenile Turf) ready to run on Saturday.
The Ballydoyle trainer came agonisingly close to winning the Classic at Churchill Downs 10 years ago with Giant’s Causeway, but his four Breeders’ Cup victories have come at Belmont, Santa Anita and Arlington.
O’Brien was also out of luck in the 2002 Kentucky Derby when Johannesburg could finish only eighth to War Emblem.
There have been concerns expressed by European trainers about the state of the turf course at Churchill Downs which has been described as fast, but the Irish trainer said yesterday: “Our horses prefer fast ground so that isn’t a worry. They all seem to be fine and travelled over fine.”
Michael Stoute, trainer of Arc winner Workforce, who runs in the Turf, described the track as “in wonderful shape with a nice cover of grass”.
Together has been handed a wide draw for tomorrow’s Juvenile Fillies race on the turf, but her trainer said: “She is out a bit but she is going to be ridden handy anyway so it shouldn’t be a major problem.”
O’Brien’s runners will all run on Lasix this year. Ballydoyle’s only Breeders’ Cup winner in 2009 was Man Of Iron in the Marathon, their sole representative to run on the drug.
