A world champion. A superstar. The next Phar Lap. That's what the racing world thinks of So You Think after he secured back-to-back Cox Plates on Saturday.
The superstar title could equally apply to master trainer Bart Cummings, the "cup king'' who has now won Australia's weight-for-age championship five times.
Gai Waterhouse's More Joyous came out hard and strong, but just couldn't sustain the assault against So You Think, the first horse to win back-to-back Cox Plates as a three- and four-year-old.
In second place was Zipping, whose rider Nick Hall puts So You Think up there with the legendary Phar Lap.
"He (Zipping) is a legend in his own right. So You Think is just too good. We ran into the next Phar Lap.''
Cummings isn't so sure.
"We hadn't thought of that one,'' he said.
The 82-year-old, who's just recovered from a fractured pelvis, isn't one to get too carried away with all the hype surrounding his latest superstar.
After all, So You Think hasn't won a Melbourne Cup - yet.
And he should know, he's had quite a few champions in the past 45 years, so much so that he's dominated the Melbourne Cup with 12 wins.
"It's hard to compare them all. They've all been champions really and there have been some very good ones, but I'd say this horse is up with the best at this stage.''
Others are simply in awe of So You Think, who won his first Cox Plate last year in only his fifth start.
Bookies had him as a certainty to win his second on Saturday, making the four-year-old the shortest-priced Cox Plate favourite in more than 40 years.
Steven Arnold found it hard to describe the feeling of riding such a horse to victory in the Cox Plate in front of 31,500 people.
"It's what every jockey sort of dreams of,'' he said.
The second Cox Plate was only So You Think's 10th start.
"It's pretty freakish,'' Arnold said. "I would say he could possibly even get a bit better, but that's for other people to judge, I think.
"It's certainly the pinnacle of my career. It's been a great experience to ride such a good horse and a privilege to be on him.''
Trainer John Wallace, whose sentimental favourite Shoot Out came fourth in Saturday's race, says So You Think is brilliant and a world beater.
"He's a world champion. He's a superstar isn't he? Just too good, mate. Maybe Bart should retire him and make him a stallion and give us all a hope."
