So You Think (NZ) vs. Workforce

It is a battle that has been touted as one of the contests of the English racing season, the NZ bred Australasian star So You Think versus last season's leading English three-year-old Workforce, with both heading to the Group 1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes (2000m) on Saturday.

With many predicting that their first showdown would be in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, where So You Think (NZ) (High Chaparral x Triassic) effortlessly won his first Group 1 in the Northern Hemisphere, the racing public have been made to wait as Workforce (King's Best) has been absent from both that and the Group 1 Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Workforce won two of the UK and Europe's most prestigious thoroughbred events last season, the Group 1 English Derby and the Group 1 Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe.

Workforce's seven length thrashing of the Derby field last season earned him an international rating of 128, which at the time made him the third equal highest rated horse in the world by World Thoroughbred Rankings. His victory also saw him smash the course record set by Lammtarra in 1995 by almost a second.

So You Think (NZ)

To put his performance into perspective, Lammtarra's Derby record of 2.32.23 beat the course record set by Bustino in the Coronation Cup 20 years earlier. Lammtarra also went on to win the King George and the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe, becoming the first horse since Mill Reef to win the prestigious treble in 1971.

Further to his Derby course record performance, Workforce was rated four pounds higher than Sea The Stars after he won the Derby in 2009.

Winner of his first start back from a spell in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes (2000m), Workforce was installed an equal favourite in the Coral-Eclipse with So You Think at 5-4 with the bookmakers. But after what only can be described as one way traffic, So You Think's odds have shortened and continue to do so as the money pours in. He is now quoted as short as 5-6.

In an interesting twist to the race, the much talked about Ryan Moore, who rode So You Think in the Tattersalls Gold Cup in Ireland and his last start at Royal Ascot, will be riding Workforce in the Group 1 race. A jockey for So You Think has not yet been confirmed, but his regular Australian jockey Steven Arnold, who rode the son of High Chaparral to victory in his second Cox Plate, has put his name into the mix.

The race is however, far from a two horse contest. Also entered in the field is the exceptionally talented Snow Fairy (Intikhab). The winner of six of her 13 starts, she won the Group 1 English and Irish Oaks double last season before placing in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks and taking her third top level success in the Group 1 QE II Commemorative Cup in Japan.

Again showing her class on the international stage, she beat the older horses for a second time on their home ground in the Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin in her last start of the season. She will be having her final hit out in the early hours of Friday morning (NZ time), and if her trainer Ed Dunlop is happy with her work, she will be confirmed for the race where she is currently quoted at 10-1.

With the Sandown track receiving six millimetres of rain on Tuesday, the surface is shaping up as a good track for the contest with fine weather predicted for the remainder of the week. Should the surface hold until the weekend, So You Think will get every chance to add Group 1 win number seven to his impressive record.

Coolmore have also paid US$25,000 to enter So You Think in the rich Breeders Cup World Championships at Churchill Downs in the US on November 4 and 5.

The Group 1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes (2000m) will be run at Sandown in England at 3.10pm on Saturday, 2.10am New Zealand time.