Coolmore Stud on Monday announced the passing of SO YOU THINK aged 19. He was sadly euthanised, succumbing to illness just days before the 2025 renewal of the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, the race that made him famous.
In Cox Plate week when we remember the great Cox Plate winners, So You Think is a name that will be to the fore in conversations.
So You Think won back-to-back Cox Plates in 2009 and 2010 under the eye of legendary trainer Bart Cummings.
So You Think was a Group 1 winner in Australia, England and Ireland.
So You Think - RIP 2006 - 2025
Coolmore Stud Statement – It is with great sadness we announce the passing of 10-time Group 1 winner and leading sire, So You Think, after succumbing to a short illness while receiving world-class care from the team at Scone Equine Hospital.
So You Think was described by his trainer Bart Cummings as “perfection on four legs, you don’t get any better than him, he is the finest, most genuine horse I have ever trained”.
The striking son of High Chaparral and two-time Cox Plate winner was purchased for NZ$110,000 by Dato Tan Chin Nam at the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale.
A 5-time Group 1 winner on both continents for both Bart Cummings and Aidan O’Brien, he will long be remembered as one of the all-time-greats.
“When people visit Coolmore, more often than not, the stallion most of them really want to see is So You Think. He was an absolute gentleman, an incredibly kind and intelligent horse and this is a sad day for all the staff that have looked after him so well at Coolmore since he retired in 2012,” said Tom Magnier.
“We are so lucky to have had him and watch him develop into one of the country’s truly elite sires. He provided me with so many great memories on racetracks throughout the world as both a racehorse and a stallion. I will never forget the day he sired three Group 1 winners in a day at Randwick in 2022, but equally the day he provided Joseph O’Brien with his first Royal Ascot winner as a jockey in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes in 2012.”
So You Think is a sire that will be remembered for his remarkable consistency, finishing in the top 10 on the sires table for each of the last 5 seasons and coming second to I Am Invincible on two occasions.
He is already responsible for 12 individual Group 1 winners, but with the likes of Revelare, Getta Good Feeling, Oh Diamond Lil and Saturday’s Group 3 winner Diamond Scene to continue to run for him, this figure looks set to continue to climb well into the future.
Coolmore.
So You Think, the best horse master horseman Bart Cummings ever trained, will be laid to rest alongside other Coolmore champions in the Hunter Valley.
It is understood that 19yo, whose racecourse exploits were seen to their full capacity in both hemispheres, suffered liver failure, with his illness coming to light only in recent days.
So You Think spent his final days under the expert care of veterinarians at Scone Equine Hospital, but it was determined that there was no alternative for the top-class racehorse and sire other than to be euthanised.
Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier was at Scone Equine Hospital at So You Think’s side during the sire’s final moments.
It’s been a tragic six weeks for the Coolmore team, with So You Think the latest top-class stallion to be euthanised in a short space of time at the Hunter Valley stud.
He will be buried next to Wootton Bassett who also died suddenly at Coolmore last month.
Fastnet Rock, who died in early September aged 24, is buried on Wootton Bassett’s other side and on the other side of Fastnet Rock is trailblazing sire Choisir.
So You Think was twice runner-up to I Am Invincible in the Australian Sires’ premiership, and currently sits in Second position to Zoustar by Winners, just one win behind the leader in this current 25-26 season. So You Think is the sire of 66 individual stakes winners, with 12 of them able to score at Gr1 level including three-time Group 1 winner Think It Over and dual Group 1 winner Think About It, who also won the 2023 The Everest.
So You Think reverse shuttled to Coolmore Ireland for three seasons early in his career, resulting in four northern hemisphere-born stakes winners, the best being the imported Gr1 Sydney Cup winner Knights Order.
As a broodmare sire, So You Think’s daughters have produced eight stakes winners to date including Golden Slipper and Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Fireburn, Group 1 winner Prix Jean Prat winner Puchkine and last season’s Group 2 Skyline Stakes winner Rivellino.
So You Think retired to stud in 2012 at a fee of $66,000 (inc GST) and reached a peak of $99,000 in 2023 when he covered 164 mares. He covered 105 mares in 2024 and he was on track to serve a similar number this season.
Dynamic Syndications have raced several of the So You Think progeny with success over the years giving us confidence to buy another of his sons at the 2025 Magic Millions.
Now, in reflection of the tragic news of the loss to the breeding industry of So You Think, we recognise the magnitude of what we have in our possession.
SO YOU THINK x SULTAH 2YO COLT
We own a magnificently bred, perfectly conformed, 2YO son of super sire So You Think who we trust may continue his sire’s legacy.
We deliberately held our 2YO Colt back to be the final offer to finish the year.
He is a colt of the highest quality, whose broken-in brilliantly and has been placed in the care of Australia’s leading trainer Ciaron Maher.
Our Colt is a half-brother to 2 stakes winners, a staked placegetter and to the Dam of a Gr1 winner.
They simply don’t come along any better bred, better looking, or better moving than our colt.
Maybe its in the stars, only time will tell, that our Colt may become one of his sire’s greatest flagbearers.
Vale, SO YOU THINK