END OF AN ERA: So You Think will retire to stud after the Coral Eclipse Stake at Sandown (Inpho)
By Sean Goff | Sports reporter
So You Think heads the field in Paddy Power’s online betting for the Coral Eclipse Stakes at Sandown on Saturday before he gets the gold clock and retires to a life at stud.
The Aussie import returned to top form in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot when denying the Queen’s Carlton House and Godolphin’s Farhh.
Godolphin have supplemented Farhh who was trimmed to 7/2 second favourite from an opening 9/2 while Carlton House was withdrawn on Monday and has neem replaced as third in the betting by Nathaniel who has yet to race this season.
O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable is on a high after Camelot swam to an Irish Derby win at the Curragh on Saturday night reviving talk of the Triple Crown in the English St Leger at Doncaster in September.
The trainer reported on Sunday that his three-time Classic winner will have one more run or a racecourse gallop before a tilt at the St Leger and racing history.
Stablemate Imperial Monarch was a late withdrawal from the Irish Derby and has been re-routed to France and the Grand Prix de Paris to avoid a clash with his stablemate in the 1m 2f Group One contest.
York’s Dante winner and Epsom Derby sixth Bonfire is 10/1 from an opening show of 14/1 ante-post to spoil So You Think’s retirement party.
The Australian colt joined Ballydoyle from racing Down Under after finishing third to Americain in the 2010 Melbourne Cup and quickly established himself as a player in the top division in the Northern hemisphere.
But questions were being asked after he was beaten at Longchamp, on Champions Day at Ascot last October, at the Breeders Cup and in Dubai earlier this season.
O’Brien made a frank admission after his Royal Ascot win that he had been training the colt ‘wrong’.
He reckoned he had overtrained him on the gallops for stamina and was blunting his pace in the process.
Favourite backers will hope So You Think is up to speed next Saturday and can sign off his racing career with a win in the Coral Eclipse Stakes.
