Sea the Stars

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lucretia

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in all this Burghley euphoria we seemed to have missed congratulating Sea the Stars and all his connections for another scintillating victory, this one in the Irish Champion Stakes. Fortune and fame didnt barely see which way he went. amazing horse, hope it runs in the Arc.
 
I think people spend a little too much time worrying about unbeaten records, a champion is a champion, no one is going to say the horse is less of one if honourably beaten and the really true greats go on any going, allowing they may have a preference of course.
he might just as easily get a swamp in the us (where is the breeders cup this year?)
 
If he's gonna get beat though, he'd be as well trying in America. He's pretty much head and shoulders above the European horses, and the Arc wouldn't elevate him as much as a Breeders Cup win.
It's at Santa Anita (California) this year, where they have the Cushiontrack surface, so a tilt at the classic would be awesome, IMO. Although I appreciate what an ask it would be for a 3yo on the go since the guineas.......
 
and the european horses dont generlly do as well in california either, it is a fierce old journey and then there is the change in weather.
 
Dunno about that, last year it was at Santa Anita and Raven's Pass won the Classic with Henry the Navigator second, and Conduit won the Turf with Eagle Mountain second.......
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And I forgot, Goldikova won the mile, and Frankie won the juvenile, I think........

ETA, just checked and he won the juvenile on Donatavium, a Gosden runner.
 
I think America is the next challenge for him. Would have liked to see how he fared against more of the older horses in the champion stakes. Unfortunately a lot of the best horses of the last few years retired last year. Id like to see how he fares in the Breeder's Cup. We know hes a good ground horse so its likely that if he is beaten at the Arc it will be by the ground rather than a better horse (as ppl were saying ahead of Leopardstown yesterday). Tbh, at the moment an unbeaten record at the highest level would be of more benefit going to stud than to be beaten on ground he clearly dislikes. I would doubt he will run at the Arc unless conditions are good anyway, he wasnt a certainty to run at leopardstown until yesterday morning (when it hadnt rained over night).
Fantsatic horse though!
Also hear Mike de Kock has purchased a few exciting top level racehorses in the last fortnight so will be interesting to see what he gets out of them. Could see some of them before the season is out, or at least in Dubai over the winer.
 
If he bypasses the Arc, they have the time to ease off a bit and pick him up again for America. Mind you, I could get to see him in the flesh if he ran in the ARC!

What horses have gone to Mike De Cock??? Can you say?
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Frozen Fire and Golden Sword, from APO'B
But wow, STS is some horse. I was very impressed how he quickened up at York on that ground, hard to do IMO. Versatile as well, won over 1m-1m4f. Wonder what his stud fee will be..?
...and its Fame and Glory btw...
 
America can be tricky though, as some cope well and some not at all. There can be such a huge difference in the weather, too, depending on time of year, area etc. and really no way to predict.

He's a smashing horse. I really feared for him in his last race but he certainly showed he didn't need to dominate all the way to win.

Have My Typhoon been bred? It will be interesting to see if they can produce another "super broodmare" as well. I'm also getting to be a real Cape Cross fan, as know a couple of others and while not STS standard by a long shot they are very useful horses.

Will be interesting to see how it plays. I wonder how long they'll keep him running.
 
Yup, FF and Golden Sword. Think the newspapers reported it on September 1st, horses were sold to him about 7/8 days before that. De Kock is apparently delighted to have an Irish Derby winner and runner up in his stable. Two good horses, will be interesting to see how they fare.

Do you think its likely STS will go to the Irish National Stud to stand? I assume the best place to stand him is in Ireland anyway, at the current time. Dylan Thomas went in at 50,000euro when he retired, would expect STS may retire at about the same - given the times that are in it. Maybe 75000euro but would be unlikely to be more imo.
 
Yes my Typhoon has a colt by Awesome Again, born on jan 30th and has been bred back to Distorted Humour - which could be a very interesting covering. Would love to see her put tosomething like Dylan Thomas, but I guess she was a US race so they are sticking to US proven stallions - for now at least. Will certainly be interesting to see what she produces. Urban Sea was an amazing mare.
 
Thanks for that. Frozen Fire is a horse that I liked, I'm curious to see if he flourishes in his new environment.

GR, Urban Sea is phenomenal, I don't think she has had a runner that wasn't a good winner .............

She's right up there with likes of Doff The Derby and Height of Fashion.
 
Dont see why he wouldnt stand at the Irish National Stud ...Godolphin/Darley wont buy him will they? Well I hope not ..
I've just been admiring Amadeus Wolf and Invincible Spirit (till I saw the price tag)
also ..on ATR they had an APO'B interview kinda thing, and i think he's prepping Yeats up, maybe for France? Just wondered if anyone knew for what race?
 
[ QUOTE ]

Urban Sea is phenomenal, I don't think she has had a runner that wasn't a good winner .............

She's right up there with likes of Doff The Derby and Height of Fashion.

[/ QUOTE ]

The filly by Green Dessert did race but didn't win. The other from that cross didn't race.

For me, it's all about the mares. Performance horses as well. I knew one mare that produced a Stakes winning race horse, an approved warmblood Stallion, an Advanced dressage horse and a working hunter that was sold for $150k. It was interesting starting to ride for breeders and seeing how many "families" were consistently heads above even similarly bred horses.
 
i was lucky enough to look after urban seas mother and two younger siblings when i was in the states, she was winning the arc at the time but if you are going to mention wonder mares in the breeding shed GTF, i have to cast a vote for Fall Aspen, Timber County and Hansel both pretty smart and i am fairly sure she had a few other good ones or daughters who had good ones. and Doubly Sure, seeing as the first stud i worked on was plantation, i am sure we can think of a few other honourable mentions between us
 
For sure, Lu! The breeding mares at the Meon Valley stud don't have too shoddy a reputation either, but I meant classic producing broodmares..... they're all the ones I could think of off the top of my head.
I don't know much about the American pedigrees unless they impact on European racing.
You're right, Tarr Steps, dunno why I missed that! She does look like she didn't have a trip.
 
had a few of meon valleys in my tender care as well, rappa tap tap, someone special, one in a million all fantastic. we are on a roll now x
 
There has been debate about him turning up for the Arc since mid summer. Agreed it would be awesome to see him race over the pond! There have been more European successes at SA than you'd think considering the hellish journey and the time difference - Six Perfections; High Chaparral (Falbrav was 3rd); Islington, L'Ancresse and Yesterday were 1,2,3 in the Filly and Mare Turf,.

This was truly an awesome performance though - I hope he does run at Newmarket!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X43CBqwwS9s&feature=related
 
Both ladies were VERY special broodmares here's the figures

Fall Aspen -
Winnings: 20 Starts: 8 - 3 - 0, $198,037
At 2: Won Matron S. (G1), Astarita S. (G3)
At 3: Won Prioress S.
Sold in 1994 for $2.4m in foal to Danzig.
Broodmare Of The Year in 1994.
Produced 4 G1 winners, 8 GSWs, 9 SWs and one additional SP runner out of 14 foals; 2 non-winners, 1 unraced.
Died 3 Feb 1998 (foaling complications). Buried at Ashford Stud, KY.


offspring:

ASPEN LEAVES2 (USA) - M - 1996 - WOODMAN - 1-0-0-0 - $0
BIANCONI (USA) - H - 1995 - DANZIG - 12-3-2-0 - $135,150
COLORADO DANCER (IRE) - M - 1986 - SHAREEF DANCER - 10-3-1-2 - $203,389
DANCE OF LEAVES (GB) - M - 1987 - SADLERS WELLS - ?-?-?-? - Unraced
ELLE SEULE (USA) - M - 1983 - EXCLUSIVE NATIVE - 16-3-4-2 - $101,478
FORT WOOD (USA) - H - 1990 - SADLERS WELLS - 5-3-0-0 - $359,995
HAMAS (IRE) - H - 1989 - DANZIG - 18-5-4-1 - $237,814
MARTINELLI2 (USA) - H - 1998 - THUNDER GULCH - 3-1-?-? -
MAZZACANO - H - 1985 - ALLEGED - ?-?-?-? -
NATIVE ASPEN (USA) - H - 1984 - RAISE A NATIVE - 24-4-2-4 - $73,564
NORTHERN ASPEN (USA) - M - 1982 - NORTHERN DANCER - 16-5-3-0 - $253,678
PRINCE OF THIEVES (USA) - H - 1993 - HANSEL - 12-2-2-1 - $368,474
SHEROOG (USA) - M - 1988 - SHAREEF DANCER - 8-1-2-1 - $9,758
TIMBER COUNTRY (USA) - H - 1992 - WOODMAN - 12-5-1-3 - $1,560,400


Urban Sea -
Winnings: 23 Starts: 8 - - , $1,704,553

1ST Prix de l'Arc de Tromphe (FR-Gr.1), Prix de la Seine L. (FR), Prix Piaget D'Or L. (FR), Prix Exbury (Fr-Gr.3), Prix du Fonds European de l'Elevage L. (FR), Prix Gontaut-Biron (Fr-Gr.3), Prix d'Harcourt (Fr-Gr.2). 2ND E. P. Taylor Stakes (CAN-Gr.2), Prince of Wales's Stakes (GB-Gr.2), Prix Minerve Gr.3 (FR).

Raced in Eng, Fr, Ger, Japan, and NA. Broodmare of the Year in England and Ireland in 2001. Died foaling 2009.


offspring:

ALL TOO BEAUTIFUL (IRE) - M - 2001 - SADLERS WELLS - 6-3-1-1 - $293,997
ATTICUS11 (IRE) - H - 2000 - SADLERS WELLS - ?-?-?-? - unraced
BLACK SAM BELLAMY (IRE) - H - 1999 - SADLERS WELLS - 18-4-2-3 - $680,472
CHERRY HINTON3 (GB) - F - 2004 - GREEN DESERT - 5-0-1-2 - £27,069
GALILEO4 (IRE) - H - 1998 - SADLERS WELLS - 8-6-1-0 - $2,245,373 (£1,621,110)
MELIKAH (IRE) - M - 1997 - LAMMTARRA - 4-1-1-1 - $125,309
MY TYPHOON (IRE) - F - 2002 - GIANTS CAUSEWAY - 22-9-3-3 - $1,308,361
SEA THE STARS (IRE) - C - 2006 - CAPE CROSS - 8-7-0-0 - €2,455,543
SEAS LEGACY (IRE) - C - 2005 - GREEN DESERT - ?-?-?-? - unraced
URBAN OCEAN (FR) - H - 1996 - BERING - 14-4-0-1 - $85,103
 
A wonderfully talented horse with a great racing brain. But would anyone else have liked to have seen him have a crack at the St Leger? OK, so I know it would not really gain him anything (other than immortality of course) but I do not buy that it woudl really lose him anything either. He is already established as a middle distance horse with excellent speed, if he won the St Leger it would no doubt be considered he did it despite stamina doubts.

Instead we have seen the slightly boringly predicatable route of the 1m2f weight for age group 1's, races which didn't really challenge him and were against small relatively uncompetitive fields. Something like the Prix Du Moulin would have been far more exciting had they wanted to prove his speed.

And is the ground in the St Leger likely to be any worse than in the Arc? In fact, is the Arc really that good an idea for a 3 yo? Along with the Breeders Cup, is it not too long a period for a horse to retain its form? But it probably won't matter anyway, because we'll never see him on a racecourse again after this year. And nothing he does now will detract from his popularity at stud.

All the more reason to have a crack at the St Leger then...he could make it fashionable again.
 
HH -It would certainly be great to see him have a crack at the St Leger, but when you have waited as many years as Oxx has for one this good, you wouldnt want anything to take away from it. Actually rode him out for a bit early last summer as a two yo and he was fairly class alright - cant believe my luck.

Fall Aspen and Doff the Derby are certainly up there with the best (and if you look back a hndred or more years ago, a mare called Pocohantas contributed hugely to modern breeding). Fairy Bridge was fairly special from the POV of producing top class stallion sons - though not necessarily top class racehorses, though not in the same league at all.

Yeats is in he irish St Leger but Johnny has given up the ide on him in favour of the Doncaster race on Age of Aquarius.
 
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