Sea The Stars.

He's up there now, isn't he? A lot of horses would not have got out from the rail like that....... sheer class......

Awesome.
 
Super Conformation, Superb Temparament Bags of ability, I wounder if they would like an appaloosa as his test mare?? ????????
 
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I want to cry!!!

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I am
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32 days from Santa Anita and becoming the best in the World ever! He is in the BC Classic where he takes on Mine That Bird and Zenyatta, if he can beat her then he becomes a legend. Sadly Rachel Alexander won't be there, would have sold the house for a ticket to that one!!

If anyone is going this year then what a treat.
 
personally i would put him away now and leave the breeders cup til next year. and i dont think I can quite go to best in the world ever, you cant really compare as horses these days have so much more opportunity to travel and stuff, they tend to race less and have their campaigns carefully managed to preserve unbeaten records. Sea the Stars is up there but there, he has done something no other horse has managed but plenty of others were never asked the same question like Secretariat, Eclipse, Seattle Slew, Citation, Pretty Polly, Cigar to name a few. How many run for three seasons now or even four, like John Henry or Phar Lap?
As i said earlier, true greatness is when a horse defies the odds IMO and still succeeds, like Brigadier Gerrard wining the King George over a distance way past his best or Balanchine beating the colts in Ireland or Arazi last to first in the Breeders Cup. This horse could easily have been beat today he didnt have the best run but when the gap opened he took it and ran on, the second horse showed it was a truly run race up to the standard of the previous couple of years at least, and if there were any chinks, they would have been exposed today.
 
ok, give it a rest now. yes, all these others have been greats but as from this day Sea The Stars has added to them,lets just be proud and happy for him and everyone concerned with his magnificent win!
 
I think the last two comments were refering to whether the horse needed to run in the breeders cup actually and i think I said he has done enough for the moment.
and i do not think as i say above that any horse can be called the best in the world ever, you just cant compare, even if he does run in california and win.
Just because we have seen a fantastic horse today doesnt mean we should be forgetting the perfomers of the past or implying they did not do as well or better just because we are carrried away by the moment.
so if you want to give it a rest fine but i will carry on sticking up for the horses of the past who maybe were not so good but gave me just the same pleasure, even the ones i have only been able to see on tape.
 
I have to agree with your comments Glenruby re STS. Even before today's imperious performance in the Arc, STS should have been in anyone's list of Top 100 racehorses, and according to Mick Kinane YESTERDAY, and he is probably in a better position to judge than us, he rates STS as the best horse he has ever sat on. Whilst Nashwan was a champ, he wasn't as good as STS even before today's race. After losing his prep race, he was retired before the Arc, and in the race before that, the King George at Ascot, he won by a neck, & some would say he was lucky that Old Vic had been withdrawn just before the race, or he might not have won that either. It's always difficult to judge horses of different generations, but I don't know many horses that have won a Group 1 race every single month for 6 consecutive months, including the 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse and the Arc! In my opinion, STS is probably the best I'm ever likely to see in my lifetime.
 
I don't think anyone wants to take away from champions of the past and we shouldn't forget them. We are quick to look for the holes but how often a horse runs in his career is dependant on so many factors - maturity, soundness, constitution, temperament, ground to name just a few. Yeats has to be admired for his remarkable career lasting as long as quite a few jumpers, The Minstrel for his extraordinary relish for a fight, Giants Causeway for his iron will, George Washington for his arrogance, Shergar for his brilliance to name just very few. STS I hope will be remembered for being a supreme athlete who dominated his peers. I would love to see him run in the classic if his trainer feels he is still able to do himself justice. Hopefully he can win but I for one won't think any less of him if he doesn't - it's just fun to try and show the Americans a thing or two!!!
 
same here, i remember well the horse of the 60s and 70s, both nh and flat, working in nh for a few years gave me tremendous insight and looking after Persian War in his latter years inspired me too., but time and racing moves on and new ones come and go all the time. whether STSgoes for the breeders or not, i wish him all the luck in the world and hope he does well.
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How anyone can argue that a horse like STS is NOT a great horse is positively beyond me and from what I can gather EVERYONE I spoke to at Tatts today! And that was BEFORE the race!! The horse has now run once a month in Group 1 races for 6 months on the trot and won THEM ALL!! Over a variety of courses, distances and going. He simply wiped the floor with the opposition today and that was a class field! He crossed the line with his head in his chest, wanting more! One indication of the quality of the field that the 2 pace makers, who were SO far in front coming into the final stretch, were simply swallowed up whole and spat out so devastatingly as the field swooped. That said, no one took either pacemaker seriously, if they had, they would never have allowed them to get such a lead.

Has any horse ever won the 2000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and the Arc in one season? As previously mentioned, Nashwan didn't, Nijinsky didn't, Dancing Brave only didn't due to a technicality! No one could answer this much asked question earlier and it's way passed my bedtime already, so not up to researching it atm. As for running him in the BC Classic, we'll have to wait and see how he comes out of today's race, but boy O boy would that be a race to see!!

As an aside, it's interesting that MK's 3 Arc wins have been in 1989, 1999 and 2009, at the ages of 29, 39 and 49 - maybe he'll come out of retirement to try for a 4th in 2019, at the age 59! Stranger things have happened after all!

ETA - And to think that this family was nearly lost to the TB and to racing!! The horse we would be without now! The mind boggles!
 
STS is rated only below Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef of top horses since the 1970s. BG was on 144, MR on 141 and STS on 140.

Personally I have not been so excited about a flat racer since Nashwan. For me he is a better horse than Nashwan and has been asked more questions. Nashwan did not win on the soft and was beaten. That is not a great horse. Just a very good one.
 
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