Trainers are working in close quarters with a variety of horses every day, so it is somewhat inevitable that they develop preferences for certain breeds.
Joe Pride, one of the more ‘hands-on’ trainers in Sydney, isn’t afraid to share his opinion on a sire’s progeny he’s had enough exposure to.
Just as there are breeds he will deliberately avoid, there are some he will walk over broken glass to get into his stable!
The sire at the very top of his list is SO YOU THINK. And not just because he trained a horse called THINK ABOUT IT to Everest glory and $12million in prizemoney. After all, it was back in 2020 when he first expressed a desire to train the then yearling colt.
Last Saturday at Randwick, Pride saddled up his 38th winner by SO YOU THINK – INVESTMENT (a $91 chance mind you).
Only one other trainer has prepared more career winners by SO YOU THINK than Pride. Hardly surprising to learn it is Chris Waller, who has four times the number of runners.
And SO YOU THINK is currently at the peak of his powers. The final Saturday of the season saw him bag 5 metropolitan winners plus Proven’s Inglis Xtra Maiden winner WILD THOUGHTS at Kembla. A fitting way to cap a term that has included stakes winners from 2 years old to 8 years old!
When Joe scoured the Inglis Easter Sale with us earlier in the year, he found a SO YOU THINK colt that was in his words: “more physically advanced than what you typically see in the SO YOU THINK breed”.
Out of PERPETUUM, this colt is bred on the elite MORE THAN READY cross – 5 stakes performers (28%) and 15 winners (83%) from 18 runners (the 15 winners have amassed 59 race wins between them!).
The SO YOU THINK x PERPETUUM colt is eligible for a bevy of bonus schemes including BOBS, BOBS Extra, VOBIS and the Inglis Xtra Race Series of which WILD THOUGHTS was the beneficiary of on Saturday.
He is about to return to pre-training at Thenford Farm after impressing during his breaking-in last month (watch video update below):