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Sixth Group 1 winner for Coolmore’s So You Think.
OTI Racing's Quick Thinker (3 c ex Acouplamas by Al Maher) captured Saturday's Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) at Randwick and provided his Coolmore Australia-based sire So You Think (High Chaparral) with his sixth Group 1 winner.
Trained by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman, who are currently in lockdown in New Zealand, the colt fought it out in the straight and held on to defeat Zebrowski (Savabeel) by the narrowest of margins under Opie Bosson. Eric The Eel (Olympic Glory) put in a huge run to finish another length and a quarter back in third.
"It was great, especially given the quality he had behind him," said OTI's Terry Henderson to Racing & Sports Bloodstock.
"He has always been a funny little horse - in the early days I thought that 1600 metres just about saw him out and then he won the Tulloch we had to have a re-think.
With his co-trainers currently in lock-down in New Zealand, Murray's son Bjorn was overseeing the colt's progress ahead of the race and Henderson said the reports had been very positive: "We got very positive reports right through the week about him and obviously we got the result today [Saturday]. He has been a work in progress all the way along the line. If you look at his ratings he was still rated in the 70s until his last start - he has progressed quite quickly."
Henderson said he only bought the colt as a gift to Baker and Forsman after Vin De Dance's (Roc De Cambes) victory in the 2018 New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
"The irony with him is the only reason I bought this horse was because Murray had trained the New Zealand Derby winner Vin De Dance (2018) for us and I said: 'I will buy you a nice a horse as a Thank You' which turned out to be Quick Thinker who has now won an Australian Derby."
Henderson said he would have loved to have taken the colt to Royal Ascot for a tilt at the Prince Of Wales's Stakes (Gr 1, 1m2f) but with the coronavirus pandemic that plan is now out of the question and he will now concentrate on trying to secure a stud deal for the colt.
"I think this is now the time to secure a stallion deal with the horse on the basis that we can race him through his four-year-old career," said Henderson. "In a normal year I would have loved to have taken a tough little horse like this for the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot, but obviously that is now not an option."
Quick Thinker is one of three winners and the only stakes winner out of Listed-placed mare Acouplamas who has also produced the Group 3-placed gelding The August (I Am Invincible).
The colt's second dam is the unraced mare Mahira (Canny Lad) who is a half-sister to Group 1-placed mare Kensington Gardens (Grosvenor) - the dam of Group 1-winning sire Blackfriars (Danehill) and his Group 1-winning sister Larrocha who in turn produced Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) winner Rocha (Encosta De Lago).
Kensington Garden also produced Group 2-winning sire Manton (Danehill) and the Listed winning pair Waterford Road (Danehill) and Lions Gate (Danehill).
The colt was bought for $180,000 by James Bester Bloodstock from the draft of Holbrook Thoroughbreds at the 2017 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale. Re-offered the following year, he was bought by De Burgh Equine for $100,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale from the draft of Coolmore Stud.
Bred by Bowcock Bloodstock, Quick Thinker is the fourth foal out of Al Maher (Danehill) mare Acouplamas. Acouplamas was covered by Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) last November having missed to Sebring (More Than Ready) in 2018 and she slipped to So You Think in 2017. She has an un-named two-year-old by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) who was bought for $1,075,000 by YuLong Investments and RIFA Mustang at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Quick Thinker is one of 37 stakes winners for So You Think whose other Group 1 winners are La Bella Diosa, Nakeeta Jane, Sopressa, D'Argento and Inference. The son of High Chaparral (Sadler's Wells) has 11 lots set to be offered at next week's Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.