Kent Jnr hoping Illation can be So You Think’s big next star

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Illation goes into Saturday’s race having broken his maiden over 1400 metres at Pakenham on on April 14 and then went on to win his next start in the Listed Nitschke S. at Morphettville on April 30 and Kent Jnr told TDN AusNZ that the colt made a belated start to his career due to minor injury that required surgery.

“I’m not sure we would have ever run him as a 2-year-old, but we certainly picked him out as our Guineas colt for the Spring because he was showing a lot of ability. However, he had a slightly unusual issue where he had a tiny little spur on the back of his knee,” explained Kent Jnr.

“It never really caused lameness until there was enough in there and it was beginning to bother him, so we did a minor surgery to take that out and ever since then he has been absolutely perfect.”

While Kent Jnr is happy to take a positive outlook on the past believing the extra time did help Illation furnish into a beautiful colt, he said he and the team at home were left rueing a big missed opportunity.

“Unfortunately, the only shame was that because of that slight hiccup he missed all the Classics and I definitely think he would have been up to them," said Kent Jnr.

“However, looking at it now - we have a beautiful, sound horse and it gave him that little bit more time and that, given his pedigree, probably hasn’t done him any harm at all.”

Rockstar looks

Despite the minor setback, Kent said Illation had shown star quality since he arrived in the stable.

“From day one he had the look of a special colt. He is very similar to his father, including the famous rockstar forelock. He is a beautifully balanced horse who is gorgeous to look at and has the action to match,” said Kent.

“The peculiar thing about him is that at home, he never shows bundles of speed. We trialled him over 1200 metres leading into his first-up run, but both times he has been at the races he has faced very slow tempos and really performed beyond our expectations and that is the really exciting thing about him.

“We have always thought about him as a ten furlong horse but he sort of saves a really good change up gear for raceday, which good colts need to have and he has certainly got that.”

Family ties

Bred by Greg Ingham, who retained a share in the colt after he failed to make his $450,000 reserve when offered by Coolmore Stud at the COVID-striken Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2020, Illation is out of multiple stakes-placed mare Pontiana (Redoute’s Choice) and she has proven herself a top-class broodmare.

Illation is one of four winners - and three stakes winners - out of the mare, and he is therefore a brother to 2017 G1 Randwick Guineas winner Inference (So You Think {NZ}), who stands at Cornwall Park Stud in Victoria, while Illation also counts New Zealand Group 3 scorer Dragon Leap (Pierro) among his half-siblings.

Gallery: Some of Illation's siblings

It is an active family and one Price and Kent Jnr themselves are very familiar with given that Pontiana is herself a half-sister to Ponterro (Pierro) - the dam of the stable’s star 2-year-old colt Jacquinot (Rubick), who was beaten into third in this year’s G1 Blue Diamond S., finishing 0.4l away from the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Daumier (Epaulette).

The colt backed up that performance by finishing a solid sixth behind Fireburn (Rebel Dane) in the G1 Golden Slipper S. at Rosehill three weeks’ later.

Kent Jnr said there are some similarities between the two horses and that the stable has high hopes for the son of Rubick.

“They both have beautiful movement and are extremely natural,” he said. “I know Jacquinot got beaten in the Blue Diamond S., but I think he will turn into a lovely seven furlong to mile horse and we will be aiming him at the Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas in the Spring.”

Price and Kent Jnr look set to continue their association with the family when Illation’s I Am Invincible yearling half-sister joins her half-brother at the Cranbourne stable in the coming months.

“We have also been lucky enough to be given the chance to train Illation’s half-sister by I Am Invincible. She is at the breakers now and I am told she is a stunning filly, so that is obviously really exciting,” said Kent Jnr.

“It’s a lovely family to have anything to do with and we are so lucky to be able to train them. They are reared at a world-class farm in Coolmore and they come to us in lovely order, they really are a pleasure to train.”

Stepping stone en route to bigger targets

If Illation can win Saturday’s Listed Adelaide Guineas he will likely be headed for the paddock with Kent Jnr confident he can furnish into a high-class 4-year-old in the spring.

“We were slightly late on the scene with him and now trying to create some sort of programme that will bolster his rating and get him entered into some nice races in the spring, so hopefully we can win on Saturday and get his rating up again and then we will give him a break,” he said.

“He has got a beautiful temperament, but he is a lad and knows he’s a lad so we are very mindful that while he is out having a break he doesn’t forget his job and with that in mind we will send him someone where he can be ridden twice a week when he’s out on spell in a grassy paddock, just really to keep him ticking over.”

If the ambitious plan comes to fruition, Illation could be set on a path towards the G1 Cox Plate and he will get the chance to emulate his sire, whose 10 Group 1s include a pair of victories in the 2040-metre Moonee Valley in 2009 and 2010.

“In the spring we will probably look at a race like the Golden Eagle and the Cox Plate and we will work backwards from there,” Kent Jnr continued. “He really is an exciting colt for next year and he has the pedigree to back it up which just makes things more exciting going forward.

“Obviously, it is a whole different level going to a Cox Plate, it’s a different kind of pressure, over a trip, so possibly the Golden Eagle could be front of mind, but we will respect the fact he is a colt with a big pedigree and if he is showing that sort of form early on in the spring we will give him his chance, but there is a really long way to go.”

Champion Sire in the making?

This season So You Think has been almost unstoppable on the track in Australia this season, siring 132 winners from 274 starters, headed by nine stakes winners and as a result the stallion is currently sitting $225,357 in front of I Am Invincible in the race to be crowned Australia’s Champion Sire, soaring into the lead largely thanks to an incredible Group 1 treble on the final day of The Championships at Randwick last month.

Overall the son of High Chaparral (Ire) has been represented by 475 winners in total from 691 runners which fires at an incredible strike-rate of 68.7 per cent, while his total number of stakes winners stands at 40, headed by nine elite-level winners.

As a result of his fine year, So You Think will stand the upcoming breeding season for an increased fee of $93,500 (inc GST) having stood the 2021 season at a fee of $77,000 (inc GST).

“The exciting thing about So You Think is that he is one of those stallions with the X-factor and you can get you a very, very good horse like himself and he seems to really stamp his stock,” said Kent Jnr.

“He has sired a lot of Group 1 winners in quite a short space of time in stallion terms and like all the good stallions he is improving year-on-year and it would appear the best is yet to come.

“I would imagine he will only get better mares on the back of this season - so it’s definitely an exciting time for the stallion.”