Six year-old So You Think gelding Carif has made it into the 2021 running of the Melbourne Cup in the famous Black and White Checks, Yellow Sleeves of the late Dato’ Tan Chin Nam and his Think Big Stud.
Think Big Stud continues to race and acquire horses in those colours under the management of MD Duncan Ramage for the board of Think Big Stud comprising three of his children and Ramage with members of the next two generations of the Tan family set to be trackside for the running of this year’s Cup.
Carif himself is a generational horse for Think Big Stud.
A product of his sire So You Think purchased by Ramage in 2008 for the same owners as Carif out a mare Norzita also purchased by Ramage in 2011 for the self-same owners and those two horses between them won 12 Group 1’s.
Carif wears the brand of Think Big Stud on his near side shoulder and was born at the Think Big Stud property in Bowral NSW, a property now under the control of new custodians.
Carif may not be the best ranked to compete in the historic two-mile race, but he is a proven winner and competitor at the two miles having won last year’s Group III MRC Sandown Cup over the same trip and finished second in the Group II BRC Brisbane Cup.
Some may run the two miles faster than him on race day, but he is well prepared by Peter and Paul Snowden, well weighted with 52.5kg and has drawn ideally in barrier eight with Blaike McDougall to ride.
This preparation he’s been racing under the weight for age scale or conceding between 5kg and 6kg to the placegetters under handicap conditions of his races so far, with the exception the ATC St Leger where he finished fourth.
In the Melbourne Cup, Carif will be receiving weight from his more touted rivals and gets his chance to shine.
So as some things remain the same and other things change, Dato’s colours will be competing in another Melbourne Cup, significant in their generational evolution of both horse and man.
Footnote – Adelaide Cup winner Good Idea, also a generational product of So You Think and two time Gr1 winner Faint Perfume, wearing the same brand and born at Think Big Stud and sporting the same colours will run on Cup day at Flemington in Race Two, the Benchmark 98 event over 2800m.
