Racing: Novice colt made Valley feature a special event

This was a Cox Plate that needed something to make it extra special.

And it got it.

Yes, Bart Cummings, but also a 3-year-old with exceptional talent.

Let's get the negative out of the way first - So You Think, as a 3-year-old, and that's the critical point, could never have beaten Sunline, Northerly or Makybe Diva in a Cox Plate.

That's not to say he won't one day turn out to be a racehorse mentioned in the same breath as that magnificent trio.

He may well because to do what he did around Moonee Valley on Saturday as a greenhorn with four race starts behind him is truly astonishing.

Four starts!

You don't pull on the black jersey in your first year playing rugby.

He can only get better as he develops with age.

The likelihood is enormously better.

Apart from sometimes declaring Galilee the best he's had, Bart Cummings never compares his great horses - he's had too many.

When asked by a reporter in the Moonee Valley mounting yard on Saturday to compare, Cummings wouldn't. Re-phrased as: "Is he one of the best?", Cummings said "yes".

It must have been a weak moment.

Asked by the same reporter "what did you like about him when you bought him?", Cummings said, "well, have a look at him".

All horses might look a touch better when they win a prestigious race such as the Cox Plate, but So You Think is a truly magnificent individual.

He is a lovely rich colour, has a kind colt's eye and head and an athleticism to die for.

He is by High Chaparral, a young sire who is really starting to deliver, from Triassic, who was prepared in New Zealand by now Australian-based Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Brian Jenkins.

Triassic, by Tights from good winner Astral Row, was herself a lovely, strong-topped mare, but unfortunately her legs sustained her for only six race starts.

Those half dozen races included wins in the Soliloquy Stakes at Ellerslie and, at her last raceday appearance, the Cambridge Stud Sir Tristram Fillies Classic.

Remarkably, Bart Cummings ran So You Think in the Cox Plate essentially because he figured the horse was not mature enough for the 2500m of next Saturday's Victoria Derby.

Genius comes in many forms.

In Bart Cummings' case it's singular. But it's a very rich vein.