RACING:AS A fully-fledged Anzac racing hero, there will no doubt be a certain relish Down Under that it was So You Think who rained on the royal occasion at Ascot yesterday after denying the Queen's Carlton House in a memorable Prince Of Wales's Stakes finish.
So You Think’s new Irish connections obviously relished the occasion too, as the giant international star completed a double on the day for Aidan O’Brien, who nevertheless was in apologetic form after the big race.
The Prince Of Wales was a 10th career Group One success for So You Think, with half of them coming since his arrival in Europe at the start of 2011 amidst a fanfare of expectation.
That he hasn’t quite lived up to his Australian reputation on this side of the world has been a sore point for many Aussie race fans, with his former trainer Bart Cummings famously emerging with some rather blunt comments about his conditioning last year.
There wasn’t much wrong with So You Think yesterday, though, as he travelled like a winner throughout and had more than enough in hand to repel Carlton House, who was attempting to give the Queen a first Group One success in Britain in 35 years.
O’Brien was inclined to blame himself when So You Think was controversially beaten by Rewilding in the 2011 renewal of the Prince Of Wales’s, and even after winning yesterday, the Irish trainer was again in confessional mood.
“We expected a big run today, we felt like we had him in a place that he was never in before with us, which is incredible. I think we’ve had him a year and a half and it’s taken me that long to learn how to train him,” he said.
“We went back and listened to what everybody was saying about him, listened to what Bart was saying and telling us what to do and what not to do. We listened at the end.
“I was delighted to hear what Bart had to say as he was speaking from the heart and I was probably over-working the horse and galloping the speed out of him instead of letting him be natural. Everyone was of the opinion before we got him that he was all speed but I started off on the wrong leg with him and tried to make him stay a mile and a half.
“We’re just delighted to get him back and all I can say is sorry it took me so long to get him back to where everyone in Australia said he was. If he wasn’t such a great horse I’d have made a right mess of him,” O’Brien added.
Another crack at next month’s Eclipse is next for So You Think, after which a return home and the beginning of a new career at stud is in the offing.
There were less international considerations for O’Brien to take into account after Ishvana scored a 20 to 1 success in the Jersey Stakes.
Owned and bred by the trainer’s wife Anne Marie, Ishvana provided jockey Séamus Heffernan with a first Royal Ascot success.
Duntle scored for David Wachman and Wayne Lordan in the concluding Sandringham Handicap, bringing the Irish tally for Royal Ascot so far to five.
The Frankel team of Henry Cecil and Tom Queally just missed out on the Windsor Forest Stakes when Joviality held off Chachamaidee to get John Gosden off the mark for the week.
