Making his first appearance in a European Gr.1 race, So You Think found the Tattersalls Rogers Gold Cup at the Curragh no more difficult than his previous experience, in a Gr.3 over the same course and distance, landing the 2000m race in effortless style. This time he had strung out behind him Campanologist, 4 1/2 lengths adrift, and Famous Name, a further 2 1/2 lengths back in third, and immediate post-race reactions were that he is likely to scare off serious opposition for his next start, such was the dominance he displayed.

Derrick Smith & John Magnier with Rogers Gold Cup

“He’s incredible,” said trainer Aidan O’Brien after the race, “a different creature to what we’ve ever seen before and we’re just very lucky to have him racing on this side of the world this year. He’d have no problem running in a Group One over a mile. The Group One Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot will be next. That was always the plan if everything went well today.”

Connections are inclined to rule out a tilt at the 2400m Gr.1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July, preferring to rest their star after Royal Ascot for an autumn campaign that will hopefully culminate with the Gr.1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The Prince Of Wales’s Stakes is run on the Wednesday of the Royal meeting, 15th June.

Jockey Ryan Moore, whose regular mount Workforce shirked a match with So You Think and will reappear instead at Epsom in the 2400m Gr.1 Coronation Cup, said of his mount at the Curragh, “So You Think has a big, long stride that covers the same amount of ground most horses would take two strides to cover.” Seamie Heffernan had previously ridden the Australian champion to victory and will be in the saddle at Ascot should Ryan Moore, retained by UK trainer Sir Michael Stoute, be unavailable.