Sea the Stars


	Sea the Stars.

In order to keep the best photos of Sea the Stars and keep the memories we have put this special page up for him where you can see the facts and figures, as well as his complete pedigree. We also reprint the tale of how he won the Arc de’l Triomphe at Longchamp, his final race. That is to remind us how very, very exciting that Sunday in October 2009 was for horse-lovers. Speculation about his stallion potential is ripe on 15.10.09 Sea the Stars retires to Gilltown Stud, 26/10/09

People always say that they love National Hunt racing because you have time to see the horses many times. Our favourites return year in and year out. They take each other on, we get to know the combatants.
This year the same thing has happened in Flat-racing. We have seen Sea the Stars on a monthly basis from May until the beginning of October. He has been seen in England, Ireland and France. He has run over all distances from a mile to a mile and a half. It has made no difference to him whatsoever. Nobody doubts that he could have trotted up in the St. Leger over 2 miles.. But, nowadays, stayers are unfashionable.

He has been outstandingly versatile. He has won in small fields and in big fields. The Derby and the Prix de’l
Arc de Triomphe had big fields. The Irish Derby and the Eclipse, small fields.
He has beaten the same horses several times. But, the outstanding contribution to the story made by horses like Master Craftsman and Rip Van Winkle must not be forgotten because wherever THEY have gone, without meeting the Star, they have won. This shows the class of the performances.Now remains only the Breeder’s Cup and it will take place without Sea the Stars.

Nobody can blame his owners or his trainer. He is such valuable propery now, for stud purposes. The risk of a bad run, to end such a glittering career is a risk too many. All that flying and staying away on a different continent. We think they have made the inevitable but correct deciscion. Let him retire at the top. Rip Van Winkle can run for him in the breeder’s Cup and so can several of the beaten horses in the Arc.
Maybe he would have won the Breeder’s Cup too but he’s already been in training a long time and done what no horse has ever done before. It is more than enough.
Thank you Star! You go off to stud now.
We will shortly tell you about why the Star’s value is so sky-high. It is not just the racing performances, it is his family that make him so likely to also be a successful sire...
First we’ll re-cap on the Group 1 performances and his racing career.He ran nine times in all, his only non-winning appearance was his very first time out, in a 2-yearold maiden. He was 4th. Next time he had understood what you have to do and he kept doing it!

Races: Nine runs, eight wins and a fourth.
Prizemoney won: £4,417,163.
Races won:
· Maiden 7f Leopardstown (17/08/2008).
· Beresford Stakes 1m Curragh (28/09/2008).
· 2,000 Guineas 1m Newmarket (2/05/2009).
· Derby 1m4f Epsom (6/06/2009).
· Coral Eclipse 1m2f Sandown (4/07/2009).
· Juddmonte International 1m2f York (18/08/2009).
· Irish Champion Stakes 1m2f Leopardstown (5/09/2009).
· Prix De L'Arc De Triomphe 1m4f Longchamp (5/10/2009).

Sea the Star’s official rating is very high but it is not the highest ever, by any means. It could still go up, if his previous opponents run well in Califonia now. It is possible that his calm way of winning by a length or so, has slightly gone against him when it has come to make official ratings. Handicappers spend their life making correct ratings. They are good at it. The rest of us, we just rave on and get exited. Official Handicappers don’t suffer from over-excitment, they look at exactly what they have seen, no more and no less, not “he might have won by 10 lenghts, he was miles better..” No, if you win by a length you get a slightly better rating than the horse you beat by that lenght. It is a fair system. Different generations can never race against each other, we will never know what would have happened if we put Sea Bird II, Mill Reef and Dancing Brave into the stalls at Longchamp with Sea the Stars. And it doesn’t matter. Let them all be great. That is what the sport of Kings is for: To produce the odd outstanding horse.

Sea the Stars has stayed very sound. His temeprament has been impeccably calm, which must have been huge help to both his trainer John Oxx, who has handled him with quiet confidence and understated pride.
His jockey, Mick Kinane, who at 50, says he might well have retired last winter, if he hadn’t been riding work on a certain promising bay colt...Well, his handling of the Star has been faultless. Not many peopple could have settled the hard-pulling Star at Longchamps and then found a way trhough for him. It took nerves of steel.


		We like to look at him in action again. These are some of his best moments, most captured by Edward Whitaker.


Sea the Star’s Breeding:



		Sea the Stars, bay colt, 2006.

	Cape Cross, Sea the Star’s sire, is what is known as a shuttle stallion, i.e. he has been covering in both the Southern and Northern Hemisperes, which have different springs and therefore it is possible to have two stud-seasons in the same year. You may go to Stabletalk and go down to our interview with some stallions to find out more about this.Cape Cross, is, thanks to his son, the leading sire this year. He was standing at £ 35.000 last year, we think. A snip, it may seem now. He is, however 18 years old. His previous best was the remarkably tough and capable filly Oujia Board. But he has been a consistent and successful sire of many topclass horses and is regarded as an influence for speed. Clearly toughness also figures..

CAPE CROSS (IRE)	GREEN DESERT (USA) (B 1983) R: 5 wins BTW	DANZIG (USA) R: 3 wins

		FOREIGN COURIER (USA) R: Unraced

	PARK APPEAL (BR 1982) R: 5 wins BTW	AHONOORA R: 7 wins BTW

		BALIDARESS R: 3 wins

Mr. Prospector (USA)

Miswashi(USA)

Hope Springs Eternal (USA)

Urban Sea

Lombard (Ger)
Allegrette(GB)

Anateuka (Ger)


	As so often, it is the maternal family that is the making of the animal. Urban Sea was a truly fantastic mare of a brilliant family. She won the Arc de’l Triomphe herself and is the dam of several top horses, notably Sea the Star’s half brother Galileo who won the Epsom and Irish Derbies. He is by the top sire Sadller’s Wells. Urban Sea is also the dam of the classy Black Sam Bellamy and several good fillies. In effect, a fantastic, rare dam-line. Top class, truly so. Very few mares breed two Derby winners, let alone MULTIPLE Derby winners! Urban Sea died foaling this very spring, 2009. It happens with broodmares. Her surviving filly was being reared by a foster-mother when we last had any information. All care will be taken to rear this one! The female family si so good that we could expanmd pages upon it but, perhaps our readers would get a bit bored. Suffice to say: Sea the Stars has all the right credentials to make a top class stallion.

			This is Cape Cross, Se the Star’s sire. Smart looking too.




		This is Galileo, by Sadler’s Wells out of Urban Sea...Now a leading young sire.He is Sea the Star’s half-brother.

Sorry about the pedigree format being rather large and Cape Cross’s photo none too good. Our Editor will in time find something better. We do hope to send Stargazer to have a chat with Sea the Stars when his new location is sorted out. In the meantime, feel thankful, we have been given some wonderful memories by this horse who put racing back where it should be: At the top of the table. Look up into the sky of a dark winter’s night and remember: We’ve Seen a Star.


		Official Handicap ratings 2009

	Sea The Stars 135 Rip Van Winkle 130 Fame And Glory 129 Mastercraftsman 125 Delegator 121 Sariska 120

A SHINING STAR TO REMEMBER FOR EVER TRIUMPHANT STAR OF THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE 04/10/09

The waiting is over. The horse that was clapped INTO the paddock before the race at Longchamps received a hero’s welcome on his return to the winners enclosure. He has now truly earned his place among the legends of the Turf.
For the first time we will use the adjective AWSOME.
Sea the Stars looked calm in the paddock, with a great shine on his slightly wintry coat, but he was sweating a little going down to the start and also gave a little buck. Was he well or boiling over? The two fillies, Dar Re Mi and Stacelita looked fantastic before the race too.
How Mick Kinane could keep so calm we shall never know. All the horses loaded well. Sea the Stars jumped out very keenly. Too keenly. He was almost in the lead. Mick Kinane took a good grip to restrain him and you could see that Sea the Stars resented this bitterly, and for at least two furlongs he pulled hard and did not settle. By the time he had settled he was nearer the back of the field than the front. I never thought a horse could win a top-class Group 1 mile and a half race after pulling so hard early. Worse was to follow, as he made his way forward he was seemingly trapped on the rails, behind a wall of horses. Now he had to show immense willingness, courage and stay well balanced as he had to jinx left and right to get through. It was hard to watch. I t looked impossible. Stacelita was running well, Dar Re Mi was running well... Conduit was running well and Cavalryman was staying on. The grand battler Youmsain put in another game performance, in spite of being 20-1. He clearly loves this race, he finished second for the third year running.
Yet, once the Star was in a position to move forward nobody had an answer to his speed. He won by two lengths, with apparent ease, in the end. Cavalryman finished third with Conduit 4th and the old rivals, the fillies Stacelita and Dar Re Mi confirming their previous running last time out, Dar Re Mi again just beat Stacelita.
In fact all the first 6 home were Group 1 winners.
John Oxx summed it up best afterwards. He said he was surprised his heart was still beating. Many people had tears in their eyes. I was one of them. Remeber this horse. We don’t often see a Star like this. He is a horse of a life-time.

As for the rest of the meeting, it belonged largely to the Aga Khan who had managed to collect 3 Group 1 races at the meeting when we last checked the results.


	Reflections when his retirement was first announced.




	Sea the Stars with Mick Kinane and young Mr. Tsui.

Stargazer picked him before the 2000 Guines and we have followed him with increasing amazement and interest ever since. We think he continued to improve all the way throughout his very long season. Long, you say? A few months? Three--yearold racing is normally compressed into a few important races only.
This horse has done more.. He came out of the pattern. He took the risk. He took on the older horses. He ran once a month for 6 months and he won a Group 1 race in every one of those months! We doff our hats in tribute to his quiet and skilled trainer, John Oxx. We also think his middle-aged Jockey Mick Kinane rode him to perfection. And full marks to the owner’breeders, the Tsuis from Hongkong. Actually we feel sorry for young Mr. Tsui, it seems to us that not much is left in life for him now. It is possible that 2010 will throw up another superstar, sometimes they come close together. But more often you have to wait 30 years to see another. By which time we may well be dead but poor Mr. Tsui will be still waiting..We have put up our best photos and all our information and put itup on his own page. Now we can only wish him the very best of luck in his new Stallion career.


		Speculation 15/10/09

	Will he make a sire? He will certainly have the best chance in the world. Top class mares will flock to him. For the first 3 years. Three years from now, provided he is fertile and interested in the fair sex, he will have 2-yearold runners. That will be the moment of truth. Flat-race horses need to make a good impression right away. If they are late developers and improve at 5, well, that’s not much use to breeders of classic horses. They have to look mature and well developed in the world’s sale rings at 18 months old, then they have to go into training and they should show PROMISE at 2-years old to be likely superstar 3-yearolds.

Certainly, Sea the Stars has toughness, temperament, good conformation, pedigree and above all, top-class ability to attract his harem with. And he will.
Breeding is a strange thing though. One cannot be sure. Many super-stars have failed int he paddocks. We hope he turns out to be an influential sire too. But if not, well, we have this half-brother Galileo, by the outstanding Sire of sires, Sadler’s Wells. Galileo is a success. He really is.Personally, I would use him and wait for the Star to prove himself. if I had a £100.0000 or so for a stud-fee and a mare of sufficient quality to warrant this. It is no use sending a mare that came 3rd in a seller at Warwick last year, no, this game is for the ultra talented, the females with bluest of blood only, because a stallion can only improve relatively little on the mares in fact. It takes two to produce wonder-horses. A wonder-sire is not enough.
As you can see on the front-page, there is now betting as to where he will stand and what fee he will command.We’ll tell you more when some facts emerge from all the gossip and the betting.

Sea The Stars goes to the Aga Khan Studs. 27/10/09
We did give you a tip on this one.. There must have been insider information to make the odds shorten so dramatically on the Aga. Well done, anyway, if the Star will ever make a super-sire, it will surely be with a chance like having a Mastermind like the Aga Khan’s in charge of operations. The Aga Khans have been wonderfully perceptive and sccessful breeders for a very long time and what that family has forgotten about thoroughbreds is more than the rest of us will ever aspire to know. The Star has landed on his feet."His Highness was kind enough to let us stand Sea The Stars at Gilltown while keeping ownership of him and we are most grateful. The staff and facilities at Gilltown are top class and Sea The Stars will enjoy his stay there” says Mrs. Tsui, the owner of Sea the Stars. We all agree that he will enjoy himself at Gilltown Stud in Co Kildare.
The Aga Khan is already promising the Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava to him..The old saying of breed the best to the best...One cannot disagree with that one. Sea the Stars will stand at 85.000 Euros.(Oct 1st) This is actually a sensible first season fee. His book is sure to be full at that price, with around a 120 mares.
We wish our Star a happy time at stud.
In the meantime we still say: Go ahead, use his half-brother Galileo as quick as you can, if you have the money! A lovely horse and a proven sire winner of both the Englsih and Irish Derbies himself...A half-brother, amongst horses, means it has the same mother. So many have the same father, that this is not mentioned other than as being by x... Maternal families are the ones to follow in horse breeding!
And Sea the Stars and Galileo are both out of Urban Sea, a totally fantastic dream mare in the hands of the Tsui family. Urban Sea won the Arc herself, before becoming a most fantastic brood mare.
If you want to read more about Sea The Stars, he has his own page now, just click on his name! In the photo we see the current Aga Khan looking well pleased, as the young people say. I should think Sea the Stars is well pleased too.
John Oxx, his trainer is apparently delighted with the outcome and says that Sea the Stars is ready to travel to Gilltown any day now. The Thoroughbred Stud-season startds on St. Valentine’s Day. We wish our star a very good Valentine in advance.