The first foal by So You Think (NZ) has been born at Bell View Park near Nowra in NSW.

The colt’s dam Soft Landing (Al Maher) is a half-sister to the Scenic G1 winners Universal Prince and Universal Queen.  He was foaled prematurely on Thursday morning according to a tweet posted on the Coolmore Stud website.

Australian Stud Book records show Soft Landing was covered at the start of the breeding season on September 1 last year.  That means he will still be deemed a weanling along with the other foals from the 168 mares So You Think covered here last year.

Under old ASB rules (that were changed a few years ago), he would have been a yearling next Thursday!

So You Think (High Chaparral) was trained by Bart Cummings to win two Cox Plates before owner Dato Tan Chin Nam sold a majority share to Coolmore.  Transferred to Ireland, he bowed out of racing with a G1 victory in the 2012 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He shuttled to Coolmore Stud’s Irish headquarters earlier this year for another large book which was interrupted by a hock injury in March.

So You Think will return to the Hunter Valley next month and his 2013 southern fee has been set at $66,000 (inc gst).

– Karl Patterson