Former Cartier Champion and Galileo’s brilliant baby brother, Sea The Stars, (Cape Cross), has made a truly superb start to his stud career, writes Sarah Whitelaw.
Plenty was expected of the Derby/Arc winning champion when Sea The Stars first retired to stud – and they were reinforced in no mean terms when a first crop weanling by the sire fetched €850 000 at the 2011 Goffs November Foal Sale.
Sea The Stars – champion
Sea The Stars’ first, widely anticipated crop of foals included three individual G1 winners – Sea The Moon (Gr1 Deutsches Derby), Taghrooda (Gr1 Investec Oaks, G1 King George) and Vazira (Gr1 Prix Saint-Alary), as well as four other group winners. The once beaten Sea The Moons, who won the German Derby by a whopping 11 lengths, became his sire’s first son to retire to stud, and currently stands at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket.
His second crop has already produced high class group winners such as Storm The Stars (G2 Great Voltigeur Stakes) and Star Storm (G3 Cumberland Lodge Stakes), as well Quasillo (a three parts brother to Querari) who won the G3 Bavarian Classic in 2015.
Sea The Stars’ current sophomores have made a most pleasing start in 2016, and already include a pair of group winners in Cloth Of Stars and Harzand, winners of the 2016 Gr3 Prix La Force and Gr3 Ballysax Stakes respectively.
Another promising 3yo son of the sire, Zelzal, is unbeaten in two outings, having followed up a six length maiden score with a four length win in a conditions stakes.
Zelzal holds entries in both the French 2000 Guineas and French Derby and he looks a really exciting sort.
Sea The Stars, whose eight wins (from nine starts) included six at Gr1 level, has at least four daughters entered in the 2016 Investec Oaks, Aqualis, Beauly, Clear Skies, and September Stars, while there are no fewer than eight sons of Sea The Stars entered in the Derby – Across The Stars, Al Haram, Askari, Ezanak, Harzand, Stellar Mass, Tirmizi, and UAE Prince.
Galileo (Sadler’s Wells – Urban Sea)
When taking into account the large number of 3yos, by Sea The Stars’ half brother Galileo and his sons New Approach and Teofilo, the influence of their great dam Urban Sea (Miswaki) is well and truly apparent.
Stakes Winners
To date, Sea The Stars is the sire of 24 stakes winners, a total that looks sure to rise this year. His 31 three-year-old runners include 15 individual winners this year, and he is currently well above his half brother Galileo on Europe’s Leading Sire of 3yos List.
Not surprisingly, as he is the sire of Sea The Stars’ Gr1 winning siblings Black Sam Bellamy and Galileo, Sadler’s Wells mares have already done well with Sea The Stars, with that cross having produced the outstanding filly, Taghrooda, as well as the now Australian based, Storm The Stars.
Old Vic, a son of Sadler’s Wells, is to be found in the pedigree of Sea The Stars’ champion Sea The Moon, while another son of the great sire, Barathea, is broodmare sire of the Sea The Stars sired stakes winner, Tall Ship, with In The Wings (Sadler’s Wells) damsire of the Cheshire Oaks winner, Anipa (Sea The Stars). The promising Zelzal is out of a daughter of Opera Aide, by Sadler’s Wells.
One can but speculate as to how this success rate will continue over the coming seasons, but it seems safe to say that we have not seen the last stakes winner by Sea The Stars out of a Sadler’s Wells line mare! Should Sea The Stars’ stud career continue in the vein it has began, he will add yet further to the growing strength of the Green Desert male.
This male line, whose current representatives also include Oasis Dream (sire of hot young sires, Querari and Showcasing, as well as Irish 2000 Guineas winner Power, already off the mark as a sire), Invincible Spirit ,and Lawman, is also responsible for another Derby/Arc winner in Golden Horn, who covered his first book of mares this year.
It is also interesting to note the success this male line has enjoyed in the Epsom classics over the past few years. Sea The Stars (by the Green Desert sire Cape Cross) won the Derby in 2009, while Australia (by Galileo) is out of a mare by Cape Cross.
Taghrooda wins 2014 Epsom Oaks
That mare, Ouija Board, won the Investec Oaks in 2004, while 2012 Oaks winner, Was, is out of the Green Desert mare, Alluring Park. Another Oaks winner from this male line is Taghrooda, who romped home to win the Oaks by 3.75 lengths.
Latest Epsom classic winner to have emerged from this line is last year’s Investec Derby winner Golden Horn. It is remarkable to think that all these Epsom champions descend in male line from a brilliant sprinter, who scored his biggest career victory in the G1 July Cup over 1200m!
While he has a long way to go before he can stand comparison with Galileo, Sea The Stars, whose 2016 official stud fee is an impressive €125,000, is certainly looking a young stallion of considerable promise in his own right, and the best could well be yet to come for one of Europe’s greatest champions this century.
And, given, his own superb pedigree and high class of mare that he has covered already in his fledgling stud career, Sea The Stars could also make up into a top class broodmare sire down the line.
