So Casual

So Casual (foaled 25 October 1995)^[1] is a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the New Zealand Derby in record time in 1998.

Although not the star in his two-year-old year, So Casual ran extremely well in his first season of racing and never finished further back than third. He ran second in two Group 1 races at two, behind Happyanunoit and Zola.

Early in his three-year-old season he had to settle for minor placings too, keeping his perfect record of being in the first three at every start intact as he finished second in the 2000 Guineas to Danske and third in the Avondale Guineas to Kelt Capital Stakes winner Just Call Me Sir.

But in the Derby he finally got his well-deserved first major win, and he made up for lost time with an extraordinary performance. Ridden by Australian jockey Damien Oliver, So Casual turned the tables on all who had narrowly beaten him to date by winning the Derby in a time of 2:24.80, a track and national record for 2400m (12 furlongs) that still stands 9 years later.

Struggling with soundness after his Derby win, So Casual didn't often show his best in subsequent starts, although he did return to the winners' circle on Derby Day once again in the King's Plate the following year.

He was eventually retired after another unsuccessful return from an injury-enforced layoff in early 2002.

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