So You Think dies, aged 19

Dual Cox Plate winner So You Think has died at Coolmore Stud only days out from Australia’s weight-for-age championship that he dominated.

The 19-year-old was one of the last links to legendary trainer Bart Cummings and was the Cup King’s last champion.

“Perfection on four legs, you don’t get any better than him, he is the finest, most genuine horse I have ever trained,” Cummings said of So You Think.

He died after a short illness, with Coolmore boss Tom Magnier paying tribute to what he meant to Australian racing.

“When people visit Coolmore, more often than not the stallion most of them really want to see is So You Think,” Coolmore Australia boss Magnier said.

“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.”

So You Think won 10 Group 1 races, five on both sides of the world, including a 2012 Prince Of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot after joining the Ballydoyle trainer Aidan O’Brien.

He competed in the great races of the world, including running fourth in the Arc De Triomphe and the Dubai World Cup and down the track at a Breeders Cup Classic.

But he held a special place in Australian racing folklore with his two Cox Plates and third to Americain in the 2010 Melbourne Cup before he was sold to Coolmore.

“We are so lucky to have had him and watch him develop into one of the country’s truly elite sires,” Magnier said.

“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 produced 13 Group 1 winners with the best being Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Think It Over and Everest winner Think About It.

His death comes only a month after Coolmore lost sire sensation Wootton Bassett, who he will be buried next to.