Racing: Freak galloper in quiet debut

So You Think will carry 60kg topweight in the Mooresbridge Stakes. Photo / Getty Images

There were those who thought late last year So You Think could walk on water.

And just about talk.

Forget the water business, but the A$60 million purchase from Australia is going to have to do his own talking when he makes his Irish debut in Tuesday morning's Mooresbridge Stakes.

And that's because no one at world famous Ballydoyle Stables is uttering one word.

Australians, accustomed to 60-paragraph stories in every newspaper when one as good as So You Think eats, races or breaks wind, cannot believe the cone of silence around their New Zealand-bred champion's Northern Hemisphere debut.

We're surprised anyone's surprised.

Unlike most Irishmen, Aidan O'Brien doesn't talk.

And even more unlike the Irish, nor does he drink alcohol.

A recent national Irish survey came up with a statistic that almost 100 per cent of Irish 10-year-olds vowed they would not touch alcohol until they were 18.

Two per cent actually make it.

Aidan O'Brien is in the 2 per cent.

Media everywhere have been trying to get a quote out of O'Brien as we draw near to So You Think's first start since finishing second to Americain in last November's Melbourne Cup.

The shutters are down with O'Brien and all the Ballydoyle staff and while that's not unusual, you often wonder why.

Not one of the Irish press has O'Brien's cellphone number.

O'Brien takes reticence to a new level. To this day he has not once uttered a word about why things went horribly wrong in planning when he brought three horses out to run in the 2008 Melbourne Cup. In one of the most remarkable Melbourne Cup blunders, the three, Septimus, Honolulu and Allessandro Volta, set off together in front at a pace so ridiculous it couldn't possibly last and they collapsed and finished well behind the other runners.

It was Ballydoyle's most embarrassing moment and this is a billion dollar worldwide operation that doesn't tolerate embarrassment.

When the massive sale was about to happen after Melbourne Cup day last year, O'Brien did offer up his thoughts on So You Think.

"He has a high cruise [cruising speed] and quickens as well.

"His dad High Chaparral [trained by O'Brien] could track as quick and was tough in the end [of his races]."

It's difficult to sometimes remember that for all So You Think's international fame, he has raced just 12 times. They have produced eight wins, two Cox Plates and A$5.7 million.

The Mooresbridge Stakes is over 2000m at The Curragh and will be run around 3.20am New Zealand time on Tuesday morning.

The race acceptance is tonight and O'Brien will not even confirm who will ride So You Think in one of the most anticipated appearances in Europe in years.

Leading jockey Ryan Moore was the strongest possibility on the original rumour mill, but it now appears Ballydoyle's own Seamus Heffernan will be aboard.

Heffernan might not be a household name in this part of the world, but he is an accomplished jockey who has worked for O'Brien for more than 12 years.

He has won the Irish Derby, Irish Guineas and St Leger.

Originally he was the stable's second jockey to Johnny Murtagh, but has taken a more prominent role since Murtagh split with O'Brien last year.

Because he is the only group one winner in the past year engaged, So You Think will carry 60kg topweight in the Mooresbridge in what is expected to be a field of only nine or 10.

For the record, Aidan O'Brien reckons his wife probably rates him the world's most boring man.

If she does she's in the biggest team.