This year marks the 12th anniversary of Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) putting up one of the performances of the century to win the Gr1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Despite pulling hard early on and not enjoying the easiest of passages, Sea The Stars stamped himself as a truly great champion by accounting for nine individual Gr1 winners.
In winning the Arc, Sea The Stars emulated his dam Urban Sea, who won the same race back in 1993.
Sea The Stars – champion
The Cape Cross son retired to stud having won eight of nine starts, with his six Gr1 wins headed by the Arc, Investec Derby and 2000 Guineas.
One of the finest racehorses of the century, Sea The Stars always had plenty of appeal as a stallion prospect -not hurt by the fact his dam Urban Sea has been one of the most influential broodmares of all time.
While by no means as dominant a stallion as his remarkable half-brother Galileo, Sea The Stars has more than lived up to expectations since retiring in 2010.
Currently the sire of nearly 90 stakes winners, Sea The Stars’ progeny include multiple champion Stradivarius, Epsom classic winners Harzand and Taghrooda, the Irish Oaks winners Sea Of Class and Star Catcher, German classic winners Miss Yoda and promising sire Sea The Moon, and Gr1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner Crystal Ocean.
In total, Sea The Stars is currently the sire of 16 Gr1 winners, with his progeny having won at the top level in all of Australia, Britain, France, Germany, and Ireland.
He has enjoyed notable success with mares from the Sadler’s Wells line, as well as with mares by Kingmambo. The latter is broodmare sire of Sea The Stars’ Gr1 winners Baaeed, Cloth Of Stars and Zelzal.
Sea The Stars has had another excellent year in 2021.
His star representatives this year include the brilliant, unbeaten Baaeed (whose five wins from five starts include the 2021 Gr1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp), Baaeed’s own brother Hukum, Gr1 Qatar Prix Vermeille heroine Teona, Stradivarius (who claimed his 17th group win this year), exciting two-year-old Reach For The Moon, and Gr2 Prix de Pomone winner Raabihah.
The once beaten champion’s great run of success continued on Saturday when his sons Hukum and Manobo claimed the Gr3 ABF/BGC Cumberland Lodge Stakes (another son Eagles By Day ran second in the Cumberland Lodge) and Gr2 Qatar Prix Chaudenay respectively.
Stradivarius – second in Saturday’s Gr1
Another son of Sea The Stars, star stayer Stradivarius, claimed second spot in Saturday’s Gr1 Qatar Prix Du Cadran while the sire’s daughter Valia took third spot in Saturday’s Gr1 Qatar Prix de Royallieu.
As a point of interest, Sea The Stars’ granddam Allegretta ranks as the fourth dam of Sunday’s Arc winner Torquator Tasso (Adlerflug).
Sea The Stars has a single sire son at stud in South Africa in the form of the once beaten Gr3 Bavarian Classic winner Quasillo.
The latter, a very close relative of leading Cape sire Querari (both Quasillo and Querari are male line descendants of Green Desert and both horses are out of the Acatenango mare Quetena), has only seven registered South African runners thus far.
Nonetheless, Quasillo’s small first crop have made an impact on the South African turf, and include the stakes placed Miss Putin, debut winner Quasiforsure and eye catching maiden winner Equillo.
