So You Think set to make huge impact in the QIPCO British Champions Series

After Frankel lit up the QIPCO British Champions Series with his spellbinding performance in the very first race, the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on 30 April, it might seem too much to expect another thoroughbred superstar to grace the £13m series this summer. It may not be, however.

Two days after Frankel had laid waste to the opposition on the Rowley Mile, So You Think, already considered a superstar in Australia, made his European debut in a small race at The Curragh in Ireland. Having been purchased by Coolmore Stud, the five year-old is now in the care of Ireland’s champion trainer, Aidan O’Brien.

The opposition may not have been very exacting, but So You Think, reported to be far from fully fit for his first run of the year, could only beat what was put in front of him and he did so with contemptuous ease.

Next stop is likely to be the Tattersalls Gold Cup, a Group 1 contest back at The Curragh on 22 May.

If that goes according to plan, we can expect to see him explode on to the British scene at Royal Ascot in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday 15 June, very likely followed by the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (sponsored by Betfair), also at Ascot on Saturday 23 July. Both races are in the Middle Distance category of the QIPCO British Champions Series.

O’Brien describes So You Think as “an incredible specimen”. There’s no doubt that Frankel, who left many of racing’s finest judges speechless after his Guineas performance, is the same. If ever there was a year to start following the world’s greatest Flat racing that we are lucky enough to have in Britain, 2011 is most certainly the time to do it!