Joe Pride has faith Think About It will vindicate decision to target Doncaster Mile
Joe Pride is confident Think About It won’t let him down in the Doncaster Mile despite many questioning his decision to target the race.
Horse Racing
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Joe Pride’s A-team of Think About It, Private Eye, Mazu and Coal Crusher occupy the top corner of his Warwick Farm stables.
The trainer has around 60 in work but deliberately boxes his elite racehorses next to each other.
“Good horses have good habits so I like them to be together,’’ Pride said.
“Some of the lesser horses have some bad vices and I don’t want my good horses learning anything from them.
“I would think most stables do this, to be honest, although I don’t know that for a fact.
“At the very least, I would have thought there would be a degree of it – although we probably overdo it here!”
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Pride’s final comment might have been tongue-in-cheek but the placement of his horses in the stables is not unlike the coach of a football team wanting his or her star players in the side.
“You want to surround yourself with the best people and hope some of it rubs off,’’ Pride said.
“Animals are no different.’’
Pride’s theory must be working because his four stable stars have got to their “grand finals” on day one of The Championships at Royal Randwick on Saturday.
Think About It, the winner of The Everest last spring, is topweight with 57kg for the Group 1 $4m Doncaster Mile (1600m).
Private Eye, Mazu and Coal Crusher will clash in a sprint showdown for the Group 1 $3m TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).
Pride is also saddling up his first-ever runner in the Group 1 $2m ATC Australian Derby (2400m) with promising three-year-old Ceowulf.
The trainer’s Randwick runners also includes tough stayer Stockman in the Group 2 $300,000 Chairman’s Quality (2600m) and emerging filly Heaven Bound in the Group 3 $250,000 Adrian Knox Stakes (2000m).
“It’s probably the strongest team our stable has ever had for a big race day like Saturday,’’ Pride said.
“I can’t say they have all had the lead-up runs I wanted, it just didn’t work out on the day for a couple of them, but they ran in the races I planned for them to be ready for their grand final.’’
• $10m earner ‘deserves’ change of fortune in TJ Smith
Think About It and Private Eye are two of the best advertisements for Australian racing’s thriving syndications businesses and the sport’s prizemoney surge in recent years.
In this era where million-dollar yearlings are commonplace, Proven Thoroughbreds syndicator Jamie Walter purchased both horses for modest sums – Think About It for $70,000 at the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and Private Eye for $62,500 at the Adelaide Yearling Sale.
The two geldings, who go by the stable names of Spud (Think About It) and Spade (Private Eye), have subsequently won more than $22m prizemoney between them.
Think About It has earned $12,128,050 to move into seventh on the all-time list of leading prizemoney earners while Private Eye is 12th with $10,421,190 – and both horses will climb higher in the rankings if they can win on Saturday.
Pride has prepared two Doncaster winners with Sacred Choice (2011) and Vision And Power (2009) so the trainer knows what is required to win the famous Randwick mile.
Think About It is Doncaster topweight with 57kg and is attempting to become only the fourth horse this century to shoulder that handicap or more to win the famous Randwick mile after Happy Clapper (57kg, 2018), More Joyous (57.5kg, 2012), and Sunline (58kg, 2002).
The mighty Sunline is the last horse to wear the number one saddlecloth and win the Doncaster.
But Pride is convinced Think About It is the right horse for the Doncaster although the likelihood of a wet track has “dampened” his confidence a little on the eve of the big race.
“I guess carrying 57kg on a wet track makes it a little harder for Think About It but he is a tremendous horse,’’ Pride said.
“History tells you it is always tough to win a Doncaster with 57kg or more. This is going to be even harder with Think About It because we are trying to win the race on a track that could be in the heavy range.
“Most of the time, we see lightweights winning on heavy tracks for obvious reasons.
“Other than Think About It’s first start in race which he won on a Soft 7, he hasn’t been on anything worse than a Soft 5 but being by So You Think is to his advantage so he’s every chance of handling the conditions.’’
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Think About It has been beaten in both starts this autumn, resuming with a second placing behind Lady Laguna in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes before his fifth in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes to Veight.
Pride maintains Think About It is “on target” for the Doncaster despite the gelding’s winless start to his autumn campaign.
“His lead-ups haven’t been what I wanted them to be in terms of results but he’s got the hit-outs I wanted,’’ Pride explained.
“He just hasn’t had the runs in those races to be at his very best.
“But he goes to the Doncaster after two tough seasoning runs, I’m very happy with his condition.’’
Think About It was the one-time Doncaster favourite but he has eased in TAB betting since his Ryder loss and is now at $17 behind $4 favourite Another Wil.
Pride is bemused by criticism of Think About It’s form.
“I find it funny, some people have really dropped off but that is the nature of punters,” he said.
“It’s what has happened in the last week or two that captures their attention.
“Some horses stay at home and drift like Celestial Legend. I don’t know what that colt has done wrong this autumn but he has got out in betting.
“But I haven’t lost any faith in Think About It. The Doncaster is a big test for him but he has never let us down and with the right run in the race he will be there in the finish.’’
Pride has also been questioned for his decision to stretch The Everest winner out to 1600m for the Doncaster rather than keep the gelding to sprint races.
Think About It held off I Wish I Win and Private Eye to win The Everest last spring with the two placegetters clashing again in the TJ Smith Stakes.
But Pride cites Think About It’s Stradbroke Handicap win and the gelding’s pedigree being by two-time Cox Plate winner So You Think as evidence of his ability to run a strong Randwick mile.
“If Think About It had not won the Stradbroke the way he did, I’d understand people questioning what we are doing with the horse,’’ he said.
“But he won the Stradbroke with a leg in the air last year and that is a high-pressure race over 1400m at Eagle Farm.
“Two horses that come to mind that won the Stradbroke as easily as he did are Private Steer and Dane Ripper and they went on to win the Doncaster and Cox Plate (respectively).
“I just think everything about him suggests he will run the mile at least and you can’t judge him on what we has seen so far this preparation.’’
Pride said he consulted with owner-syndicator Jamie Walter before the start of Think About It’s autumn campaign and both men were keen to go down the Doncaster path.
“This is not an experiment I was going to try in the spring when The Everest was there,’’ Pride said.
“The TJ Smith Stakes is a very good sprint as well but we thought this was a perfect opportunity for him, at this stage of his career, to be tried over ground.
“If he runs a strong Randwick 1600m then the King Charles III Stakes in the spring becomes as good a race for him as The Everest because you don’t have to split the prizemoney.
“There’s a lot of different angles to it but we signed on at the start of his preparation to try this over further.
“We have had a couple of runs into his prep that haven’t really told us anything but I’m sure Saturday in the Doncaster will tell us everything we need to know.’’
Originally published as Joe Pride has faith Think About It will vindicate decision to target Doncaster Mile
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