Sea The Stars Continues His Upward Trajectory

Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) remains in a league of his own as regards siring stakes winners in Europe. During 2017 he became champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland for the ninth (and eighth consecutive) time. While nothing is certain, the 2001 Derby winner looks perfectly placed to equal and then probably pass his father's tally of 13 sires' championships. He is arguably an even more complete stallion than his father. As such, he is a tribute to both of his parents, his dam Urban Sea (Miswaki) clearly having put plenty of her influence into him too. If there were any doubt as to her influence, her merit is made crystal-clear by the fact that she is also dam of one of the very few stallions who can be considered a legitimate challenger for championship honours: 2009 Derby winner Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}).

Urban Sea was fully entitled to be a stellar broodmare, having won the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and coming from a family whose subsequent stars have included 2000 G1 2000 Guineas hero King's Best (Kingmambo) and 2001 G1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner Anabaa Blue (GB) (Anabaa). Even so, the start which she made at stud was sensational. Her first foal Urban Ocean (Fr) (Bering {GB}) won the G3 Gallinule S. as a 3-year-old. Her second foal Melikah (Ire) (Lammtarra) was placed in the G1 Oaks. And Galileo was her third, establishing himself as a champion with a quickfire Group 1 hat-trick in the summer of 2001 courtesy of superb victories in the Derby, Irish Derby and King George and Queen Elizabeth S. Next came Galileo's full-brother Black Sam Bellamy (Ire) who won two Group 1 races headed by the 2003 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh. Further top-level success came when her daughter My Typhoon (Ire) (Giant's Causeway) took the G1 Diana S. at Saratoga as a 5-year-old in 2007. Even so (and with due respect to Galileo) one could say that the best was yet to come.

Urban Sea was aged 17 when Sea The Stars was born in April 2006. Previously, the Tsui family had only raced one of the foals whom they had bred from Urban Sea (her first one, Urban Ocean), but Sea The Stars too was retained to run in their yellow and purple silks (which are similar but not identical to the livery in which Urban Sea, owned by the late David Tsui, had won the 'Arc'). John Oxx was chosen to train him and, while from the outset it seemed likely that this large and imposing colt would be likely only to come into his own at the age of three, it soon became clear that there would be some treats in store at two too. Sea The Stars made his debut in a 2-year-olds' maiden race at The Curragh in July 2008 before ending his campaign two and a half months later with two wins to his name including the G2 Beresford S. over a mile.

Galileo's 3-year-old season had been superb. Sea The Stars's Classic campaign was even better. Oxx sent him out once a month for six consecutive months (May to October). Each time he raced in Group 1 company, and each time he and Mick Kinane came home in front, recording an unprecedented (and possibly never-to-be-repeated) winning sequence: 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse S., Juddmonte International, Irish Champion S. and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. It is fair to say that he would almost certainly have won the Triple Crown had his connections opted to contest the St Leger. As a big, progressive and seemingly very sound horse, Sea The Stars looked perfectly placed to continue his progress as a 4-year-old and beyond, but his connections opted for the cautious option, arranging for him to retire to the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in 2013 at a fee of €85,000.

Once Sea The Stars started to have runners, the similarities between him and his most distinguished sibling Galileo continued to impress. Galileo's first 2-year-olds in 2005 had shown promise before starting to show their true colours as 3-year-olds the following year, most notably with Classic victories courtesy of Nightime (Ire) and Sixties Icon (GB), winners of the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas and G1 St. Leger, respectively. So it was with Sea The Stars, who began to demonstrate his true powers as a stallion when his first crop were aged three in 2014. He too was represented by two first-crop Classic winners: wide-margin G1 Deutsches Derby hero Sea The Moon (Ger) and G1 Oaks heroine Taghrooda (Ire).  The latter followed up in weight-for-age company by taking the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., while another top-level triumph for the stallion that summer came when Vazira (Ire) won the G1 Prix Saint-Alary.

Since then, Sea The Stars has continued to consolidate his status as one of the principal rivals to his legendary half-brother Galileo among Europe's ranks of elite Classic sires. It is impossible to overstate the influence which this family is currently having on the results of top-class middle-distance races. (The family, incidentally, has continued to produce high-class runners since Sea The Stars's retirement, most notably Urban Sea's final son Born To Sea (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) finishing second in the G1 Irish Derby, her granddaughter Bracelet (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) winning the G1 Irish Oaks, her granddaughter Wonder Of Wonders (Kingmambo) finishing second in the G1 Oaks and her grandson Masterstroke (Monsun {Ger}) finishing third in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe). The past two years have seen this dominance taken to a startling level.

No pair of races better illustrates the joint influence which the half-brothers Galileo and Sea The Stars is having on Europe's top middle-distance races than the Derby and Irish Derby of 2016.  Sea The Stars's son Harzand (Ire), bred and raced by the Aga Khan, landed a heroic victory in the premier Classic, with the placings filled by the Galileo colts US Army Ranger (Ire) and Idaho (Ire). Three weeks later the two siblings again provided the trifecta in the Irish Derby as Harzand beat Idaho with the Sea The Stars colt Stellar Mass (Ire) finishing third. The previous year, of course, had also seen a son of Sea The Stars featuring in the finish of these two races when Storm The Stars had finished third in the Derby and second in the Irish Derby. That Derby, of course, was won by a colt who rivals Sea The Stars for the honour of being acclaimed as Cape Cross's best son: Golden Horn (GB) who matched Sea The Stars's feat of landing both the Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the same season.

The 2017 season has again provided us with further illustrations of the joint-dominance of the siblings.  Britain's final Classic of the year was the classic example: Galileo sired the winner Capri (Ire) and Sea The Stars was responsible for both of the minor place-getters, Crystal Ocean (GB) and Stradivarius (Ire). The latter, of course, had previously won the G1 Goodwood Cup over two miles. The following month Galileo and Sea The Stars both put their mark on Europe's premier weight-for-age race, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: Galileo's son Nathaniel (Ire) sired the winner Enable (GB), Sea The Stars sired the runner-up Cloth Of Stars (Ire) and Galileo sired third-placed Ulysses (Ire). Earlier in the year Cloth Of Stars had won the G1 Prix Ganay over 2100m plus the G2 Prix d'Harcourt and the G3 Prix Exbury over 2000m. (His Prix d'Harcourt victory, incidentally, was yet another example of Sea The Stars and Galileo combining to sweep the board in a feature race when another son of Sea The Stars, Mekhtaal (GB), finished second with the Galileo 4-year-old Maniaco (GB) third). Next time out Mekhtaal, winner of the previous season's G2 Prix Hocquart over 2000m, became the second of Sea The Stars's three Group 1 winners of 2017 by taking the G1 Prix d'Ispahan over 1800m.

It is fairly easy to typecast the typical son or daughter of Sea The Stars. His stock generally don't start to display their true merit until the age of three, and generally show their best form beyond a mile. They also tend, like their father, to be very good-looking. During the past year the exception who has proved the rule about Sea The Stars's stock excelling at distances beyond a mile has been Mutakayyef, who enjoyed a rewarding campaign at the age of six, winning the G2 Summer Mile S. at Ascot after chasing home Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) in the G1 Queen Anne S. up the straight mile at Royal Ascot. More typical of Sea The Stars's stock were the likes of Armande (Ire), Endless Time (Ire), Chemical Charge (Ire) and the aforementioned Crystal Ocean who all won Pattern races during 2017 at distances beyond 10 furlongs.

The upshot of the collective efforts of these horses is that Sea The Stars has ended 2017 in fifth place on the TDN's table of European-based sires ranked on total European and North American earnings, behind only Galileo (Ire) (of course!), Dubawi (Ire), Dark Angel (Ire) and Nathaniel (Ire). Sea The Stars remains very popular with breeders aiming to produce Classic runners at his current career-high fee of €135,000. It is fair to assume that the future will see him consolidating his place among Europe's elite–which is exactly what one would expect of a horse with his pedigree, class, beauty, and proven physical and mental aptitude for regular and successful racing in the highest class. It is not unrealistic to suggest that one day he might become the second Champion Sire of Great Britain and Ireland produced by the mighty Urban Sea.