Claiborne Farm based sire, Seeking The Gold, died last week at the advanced age of 31. The horse had been pensioned from stud duties since 2008, writes Sarah Whitelaw.
One of the very best sire sons of his legendary sire, Seeking The Gold won or was placed in 14 of his 15 outings, with his victories including the Gr1 Super Derby and Gr1 Dwyer Stakes.
He also ran second to Horse of The Year Alysheba (Alydar) in the 1988 Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Classic and retired to stud with earnings in excess of $2.3 million.
Seeking The Gold was produced from the same foal crop as Mr Prospector’s champion 2YO and highly influential son, Forty Niner (sire of, among others, champion sire, Distorted Humor), 1000 Guineas winner, Ravinella, and Gr1 Frizette Stakes winner, Classic Crown.
A top class racehorse, whose half brother Fast Play (Seattle Slew) went on to become a Grade One winner at two, Seeking The Gold was also going to prove a popular, commercial stallion.
He was out of the top class broodmare, Con Game, and was bred on the same Mr Prospector/Buckpasser cross as the influential sires, and outstanding broodmare sires, Miswaki and Woodman.
Seeking the Gold certainly lived up to expectations, becoming not only a top class sire but an exceptional broodmare sire. He sired 92 stakes winners from 937 foals, giving him the impressive statistic of siring nearly 10% stakes winners to foals – a sign of a top class stallion!
Dubai Millenium
While known widely as an exceptional sire of fillies, with both daughters Flanders and Heavenly Prize official North American champions, (and another, Seeking The Pearl, the first Japanese based horse to win a Gr1 race in Europe), it was a son of Seeking The Gold that proved his sire’s best runner.
Just once defeated (when failing to stay in the Epsom Derby), Dubai Millennium is one of the greatest gallopers of the century. The ill-fated champion, who died after just half a season at stud, won nine of ten outings, with his wins including romps in the G1 Dubai World Cup (by six lengths), G1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (by eight lengths), and G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (by six lengths).
Another son, Jazil, won the Gr1 Belmont Stakes, while another, Lujain, showed himself to be a high class two-year-old when romping home to a four length win in the 1998 Gr1 Middle Park Stakes.
While neither Jazil or Lujain achieved much at stud, Dubai Millennium has ensured his name (and that of Seeking The Gold) will live on in the stud book, thanks to the deeds of his outstanding sire son, and triple Gr1 winner, Dubawi.
![Willow Magic [AUS]_tGr2 Dingaans_t20131130](https://www.sportingpost.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Willow-Magic-AUS_tGr2-Dingaans_t20131130.jpg)
New SA sire – Willow Magic
Mafki
Dubawi, already the sire of a top class young sire son in the form of Makfi (the latter already has a French classic winner at stud), has over 100 stakes winners to his credit, with 23 Group or Grade One winners.
Dubawi
With Dubawi continuing to cover some of the world’s best mares, his success should continue to grow from year to year, and many regard him as second only to Galileo among the world’s top sires.
Dubai Millennium was not the sole son of Seeking The Gold to sire high class runners however.
The late sire’s Gr1 Florida Derby winner, Cape Town, sired Gr1 Kentucky Oaks winner and US champion, Bird Town, while another son, Petionville, has more than 40 (6% SW to foals) black type winners to his credit, including outstanding filly, Island Fashion, and Gr2 Godolphin Mile winner, Two Step Salsa.
The latter is himself now enjoying some success at stud – he produced ill-fated G1 Blue Grass Stakes winner Dance With Fate in his first crop to race.
Seeking The Gold also exerted a considerable influence on the Breeders’ Cup Championships –he himself was responsible for the Breeders’ Cup winners Cash Run (Juvenile Fillies), Flanders (Juvenile Fillies) and Pleasant Home (Distaff) and his daughters produced subsequent winners, Blame (Classic), She Be Wild (Juvenile Fillies) and Take Charge Brandi (Juvenile Fillies).
His daughter, Sterling Pound, made a notable contribution to the breed by producing Gr2 winner and very successful, if ill-fated, sire, Exchange Rate (Danzig), with the latter’s top runners including champion 2yo, Reckless Abandon, who sadly had fertility issues when he retired to stud.
Seeking The Gold’s daughters enjoyed notable success to the cover of the late, great Dynaformer. This mating produced multiple Gr1 winners, Riskaverse, champion 2yo filly, White Moonstone, and five time Gr1 winner, Point Of Entry, among others.
Seeking The Gold also left a mark in South Africa.
Mother Russia – champion
Not only is he responsible for the successful Cape sire, Windrush (the latter sire of champion, Mother Russia, and this season’s high class 2yos, Nordic Breeze and Lunar Rush), but he produced another son, Lecture, who sired champions, Copper Parade and Rock Opera, and a daughter, Quaestio, dam of Gr2 Nursery winner and millionaire, Kavanagh. (Ironically his grandson, Copper Parade, was promoted to first at the expense of fellow Seeking The Gold grandson, Kavanagh, in the 2010 Gr1 Golden Horseshoe.)
The record breaking, Hear The Drums was another grandson of Seeking The Gold to score in this country, racking up no fewer than 35 wins during his career.
