Successive G1 Gold Cup Glory for So You Think (NZ)

New Zealand bred So You Think (NZ) took his Group 1 winning tally to nine yesterday in Ireland with a consummate performance in the �210,000 Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup (2100m) at the Curragh.

Sent out the heavily backed favourite, So You Think (High Chaparral x Triassic) settled well under jockey Joseph O'Brien alongside Famous Name (Dansili) with pacemaker Robin Hood (Galileo) ensuring a good pace racing seven lengths clear of the pack.

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So You Think (NZ) goes back-to-back in the
Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup

Passing the 800 metre mark So You Think began to close the gap on the pacemaker and took up the running 400 metres from home, racing clear under an arm chair ride from O'Brien to successfully defend his Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup crown by six lengths.

So You Think won the Gold Cup by four-and-a-half-lengths last year, his first Group 1 victory in the Northern Hemisphere. His successive Tattersalls Gold Cup victories put him in elite company as he is the only horse since Yankee Gold�(Lord Gayle) to win back-to-back titles in 1976 and 1977.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien has now mapped out what will be his final races before commencing stud duties at Coolmore Australia later this year.

"He has had a good break since Dubai and Joseph was very pleased with his performance today," commented O'Brien.

"He is in the Group 1 Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot and also the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes but Excelebration will probably go for that.

"The Eclipse Stakes is likely to be his last race in Europe before he enters quarantine and goes back to Australia."

To be held at the Royal Ascot meeting, the �500,000 Group 1 Prince of Wales's Stakes (2000m) will be held on 20 June and will celebrate its 150th running this year.

Yesterday's race saw So You Think return to his favourite surface on the turf after racing on dirt for the first time last year in the Group 1 Breeders' Cup in America and the synthetic surface at his last start in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan.

Bred by Michael Moran and Piper Farm, So You Think was offered by Windsor Park Stud and was purchased by Duncan Ramage's DGR Thoroughbred Services at New Zealand Bloodstock's 2008 Karaka Premier Sale for $110,000.

The winner of back-to-back Cox Plates in Australia before being taken to Europe to race under the Coolmore banner, So You Think has won 13 of his 22 career starts, 12 at stakes level and nine at Group 1 level, for over NZ$10 million in stakes.