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Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes 

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So You Think Hot Favourite for Irish Champion Stakes
01/09/11

There is little doubt that Aidan O’Brien and his Ballydoyle stable are determined to maintain their dominance in the Group One Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown this coming Saturday. The Ballydoyle trainer fields three of the six runner field as he bids to win the race for the sixth time in the last nine years.

So You Think
© Racehorse Photos

So You Think

Top of the O’Brien pecking order for the race is So You Think, last seen winning the Group One Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park in July. The Australian import, whose versatility was underlined with a cracking third place in the Melbourne Cup over two miles last year, will be running over his most favoured distance of ten furlongs, a distance over which he has only ever been beaten once.

That defeat came at Royal Ascot when he was grabbed in the final furlong by Rewilding in the Group One Prince of Wales Stakes. It was So You Think’s only defeat since arriving from Australia earlier this year which has seen him win three times; including the Group One Tattersalls Gold Cup over 11 furlongs at the Curragh back in May.

The five year old has very impressive credentials, which is why he is thr huge odds on favourite at 1/3 to win an eighth career group one.

The Bookmakers believe that So You Think’s most dangerous rival in the race will be the Ed Dunlop mare, Snow Fairy, winner of both the English and Irish Oaks in 2010. She went on to win the Group One Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup in Tokyo last November, which she followed up by claiming the even more prestigious Group One Hong Kong Cup in December.

Since then however, she has failed to sparkle and finished over nine lengths behind So You Think in the Eclipse Stakes in July and two lengths down in second place in the Group One Nassau Stakes at Goodwood Park behind Midday.

Although Dunlop has expressed some doubts about her reversing the form with So You Think, he was quite positive about her form at home, her freshness and the fact that as the race will be run in the evening it will allow her to be ridden by Frankie Dettori, who will make the flight over from Haydock Park to specifically ride her and is a 6/1 shot to cause what would be a huge upset.

The best chance of an upset could come from the Dermot Weld entry, Famous Name, although he was outclassed by So You Think in the Tattersalls Gold Cup in May and has yet to win a race at Group One level he could be a value each way bet. He is a very consistent sort who has finished either first or placed in 23 of his 26 Stakes races and is once again.

Irish 2000 Guineas winner, Roderic O’Connor, also trained by O’Brien will be given his chance but it is not sure if he will make the pace for So You Think or not. He has done very little since winning the Guineas finishing well down the fields in both the French and Irish Derby, with most pundits now believing that he simply does not get further than eight furlongs.

The remaining two runners, Recital and Dunboyne Express would have too much to find to have any chance on Saturday and their respective odds of 20/1 and 50/1 reflect this in what is essentially So You Think's race to lose.

 

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