WHOBEGOTYOU'S trainer, Mark Kavanagh, said he had not given up on winning the Cox Plate despite his horse finishing five lengths astern of Australia's best galloper, So You Think, in yesterday's enthralling Yalumba Stakes at Caulfield, reports The Age.It says: Weight-for-age races are always tactical affairs and Kavanagh said he was happy to admit that he and jockey Michael Rodd had pulled the wrong rein in trying to ride the race yesterday to beat So You Think.''I never give up,'' Kavanagh decl

WHOBEGOTYOU'S trainer, Mark Kavanagh, said he had not given up on winning the Cox Plate despite his horse finishing five lengths astern of Australia's best galloper, So You Think, in yesterday's enthralling Yalumba Stakes at Caulfield, reports The Age.

It says: Weight-for-age races are always tactical affairs and Kavanagh said he was happy to admit that he and jockey Michael Rodd had pulled the wrong rein in trying to ride the race yesterday to beat So You Think.

''I never give up,'' Kavanagh declared after Whobegotyou tired into third place. ''We had to ride our horse upside down as we were terrified of letting him [So You Think] get away. We were forced to ride the race to beat So You Think and look what happened.''

Rodd kept a close eye on So You Think in the six-horse field by staying within two lengths of the High Chaparral entire. He said he was wary of allowing the Bart Cummings-trained galloper too much of start, but in doing so dulled the withering sprint of his own horse. It was a tactic Kavanagh said he felt the stable had to try.

''We were never going to beat him if we rode our horse in his normal manner. We would have just given the race to him,'' he said. ''That's not taking anything away from the winner. He's definitely a champion. But the Cox Plate will have a bigger field and more pressure up in front. He won't be allowed to dictate like that. We'll have to ride our own race in the Cox Plate and not change tactics.''

Most others at Caulfield yesterday were left wondering how any horse would beat So You Think in two weeks' time after his dominating performance. So You Think's jockey, Steven Arnold, allowed Red Ruler to take up a two-length lead early in the race and did not move until about the 600-metre mark when he urged the four-year-old ($1.40 favourite) to lift his tempo. From that moment on, his rivals were struggling simply to keep the horse in sight.