Sea The Stars

"In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

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The wondermare - Urban Sea

To be honest, we weren´t believers in the first place. On a chance trip to Ireland in Spring 2008 we happened to set our eyes on a wonderful, muscular, big, brown colt from John Oxx´s yard. His name? - Arazan. Subsequent races duly proved that he was good, and we hoped he would turn out to be very good. But with Arazan´s untimely injury at the end of 2008 delaying first the start to his classic season, then forcing him to miss 2009 altogether, how were we to know that John Oxx not only had another ace up his sleeve, but that that ace, this laid-back son of hit-and-miss sire Cape Cross out of the wonderful Urban Sea, would not simply be another goodun´, like -say- Galileo? Sure enough we noted him in 2008, and thought him to be nice, and we did see him in the flesh in may 2009 in newmarket for the first time and thought he was probably very nice, but never in our wildest dreams were we prepared for the phenomenen that was called Sea The Stars, and the things he did in front of our eyes as the 2009 Season unfolded.
With Urban Sea´s death at the beginning of 2009 following Sea The Stars sure enough became a "must", and a very emotional one as well, and it did not take us long to be in the Believers Camp. Normally one for the underdogs and the "also-rans", Sea The Stars won us over completely after Epsom, and even though we hardly ever backed him,we just longed to see him. We were lucky to be at York for his breathtaking International win, and were glued to a telly in Baden Baden when he took the Irish Champion Stakes - the first time I ever heard people applauding a racehorse they just saw on a TV-Screen - and couldn´t wait to get to Paris to - well, to just Sea The Stars. Many people seem to have doubted him beforehand - "would it be one step too much, don´t forget no horse has ever done this, even Mill Reef had a summer break?" - but we never lost faith - this was a horse in a Million, the horse of our lifetime!
Sea The Stars did things no other thoroughbred did before him. Not many horses win six Group 1 races in one season, but none has ever managed to win the English 2000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby, the Coral Eclipse, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes AND The Prix de L´Arc de Triomphe in one single glorious season. And not only did he win all those races, he seemed to thrive on his racing, and he never looked better, stronger and more muscular than in Paris on sunday.
What´t more - going to the races now for much longer than we dare to admit, never in all those years have we seen a horse with his attitude: in perfect unisone with his lad John Hynes, Sea The Stars surely has the most laid-back temperament we have seen in a top-class racehorse, and this surely is one of the secrets of his success. He simply isn´t bothered by anyone or anything, and would probably start picking grass straight after every race, if he were allowed to do so. Cool as a cucumber, he arrives at the races with not a single wet hair - mind you, he did start to sweat in Paris though as he clearly had started to develop his winter coat - and doesnt bat an eyelid no matter what happens around, but boy, does he come alight once asked to race!
Horses come in all shapes and sizes, and this homepage is hopefully a small testament how much we appreaciate the equine athlete. We have seen many many great horses, and we have loved them and do love them, we have lost some, and we find new and new "old" favorites, but it is safe to say that Sea The Stars is the Best we have seen, ever; our Mill Reef, our Nijinsky, all in one. There sure enough will be good one`s, and very very good one´s, after him, but they all will be compared with this wonderful wonderful colt, who flew through his races to simply please mankind in a manner that no other horse has done before him.

Sea The Stars - Facts on Wikipedia

not bothered - arriving @ the races, York 2009

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Do I need to wake up for this one ?- Sea The Stars before entering the paradering, Paris, Oct 2009:

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Racing into Greatness:

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taken from www.irishracing.com:

Sea The Stars cemented his position as one of the all-time greats with a fantastic performance to land the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp today.
The John Oxx-trained colt carved his name into the annals of Turf history with a sixth consecutive Group One triumph.

Brilliantly ridden by the veteran Mick Kinane, who has been at the helm for all nine of Sea The Stars' racecourse appearances, the remarkable three-year-old emphatically justified red-hot favouritism.

Youmzain, ridden by Kieren Fallon and trained by Mick Channon, finished second in the Arc for a third consecutive year.

The Frankie Dettori-ridden Cavalryman stayed on for third, but was no match for the mercurial winner.

It was also the manner of Sea The Stars' triumph which made his exploits in France all the more exemplary.

Having been very keen and lost ground in the early throes of the race, many observers might have been forgiven for fearing the worst.

Even approaching the top of the home turn, Kinane's partner was engulfed behind a wall of horses - with Set Sail and Grand Ducal ensuring a generous pace from the head of affairs.

Once the gaps appeared, however, the race changed suddenly.

Stacelita went for the jugular inside the final 300 yards but Sea The Stars had all bases covered under his unflappable rider.

Exhibiting a jaw-dropping turn of foot, the Cape Cross colt scampered clear inside the final 200 yards to easily repel the challenge of the game Youmzain.

Oxx joked: "(My heart) is still beating fairly slow, I think. "It's wonderful that it's over - it's just a great relief.

"It's wonderful that he's come through it. He was in a nice position and he just had to step up the gears a bit to get out.

"Mick would not panic because this horse has the gears.

"That's what any jockey will tell you, if the horse has the speed and the gears he will get himself out of trouble."

Sea The Stars has, incredibly, now won a Group One race in every month since May, when he scorched to victory in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Subsequent triumphs in the Epsom Derby and Coral-Eclipse soon followed, after which he headed to York for the Juddmonte International.

It was a similar outcome on the Knavesmire as the Christopher Tsui-owned maestro defeated Mastercraftsman by a length.

Next up was the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, where he produced a clinical performance in dispatching the challenge of perennial bridesmaid Fame And Glory.

If the Irish Champion represented his hitherto most accomplished success, Sea The Stars' victory in the Arc was easily his most important - and arguably his most dramatic.

No other horse has ever secured the Guineas, Derby and Arc treble.

Then again, Sea The Stars is unlike any other horse we have seen before.

Kinane added: "I ended up in a position I maybe didn't want to, but I didn't want to risk firing him up.

"They were going a nice pace and I knew I would need a bit of luck in the straight, no matter what happened, but I knew I had the pace to go anywhere I wanted.

"He's a phenomenal horse."

Despite his confidence in the colt, Oxx admitted that pre-race nerves were beginning to take a hold.

He said: "After Leopardstown (Irish Champion Stakes) I thought that nothing can beat him and that he is the best horse by far, and he will win the Arc.

"But as you get closer you start to think about the great horses that have come here after a good season and haven't done it, and you think he could be another one.

"He was in great form, though, and we were delighted with his preparation.

"He seemed better than ever in his homework, and his physical condition is getting better - he is putting on weight.

"Every week you look at him at evening stables and he seems to be getting stronger and stronger and more masculine, so we were hoping that he might have been improving."

Oxx was also quick to highlight Sea The Stars' versatility when squaring up to adversity.

The Currabeg handler added: "A horse like that can get himself out of trouble, but there was a bit of jostling early on and it set him off and he was a bit keen for a while, a bit like the Derby I suppose.

"Mick had to pull him back then and get him behind horses to settle, and I think that would have made the punters who backed him a little bit nervous.

"I was happy as he had some of the fancied horses in front of him, but there was an anxious moment whether he would go out or go in, but once he started to go you knew he would get through.

"No horse in any race has more speed than he has and Mick wasn't worried when he was a little bit back.

"He has come on a lot since the Eclipse and he is a better horse now. He just does enough when he hits the front and will never win by very far.

"He is a great, great horse to keep on winning and to have won all of those races.

"We just go from race to race and we will see - he has done a lot."

Oxx refused to be drawn on whether Sea The Stars will now be retired as next month's Breeders' Cup Classic could still be on the agenda.

He added: "I suppose you are going to ask me about the Breeders' Cup, but that is November 7 and I am not sure how we would all feel about that.

"We will let the dust settle, and now is not the time to make a decision. We will see how the horse is and make a decision.

"To have got as far as the Arc is a lot to be thankful for.

"I can't see him staying in training next year, but we haven't discussed it."

from www.telegraph.co.uk:

Christopher Tsui, Sea The Stars's young owner, is no exception. On Sunday he sat the same eight people down to lunch - at table eight, of course – as he has done each time his horse in a lifetime has run. They include Jean Lesbords, the man who trained Urban Sea, the filly who started this whole thing when she won the Arc before going on to give birth to Sea The Stars.

Tsui gives his mother Ling a running commentary throughout the race on his phone. She is so superstitious that, having missed the Guineas, she will not watch the horse in the flesh. Afterwards he admitted he has worn the same suit, same watch and same tie for all six of Sea The Stars Group One victories this summer.

But Tsui, 27, must have thought his taxi driver had taken him through a monastery on his way to the Bois de Boulogne, such was the impossible-looking task facing Sea The Stars in the dying throes of the Arc, the two and half furlong final straight. So unlikely did a Sea The Stars victory look that even Kieren Fallon, on Youmzain, decided not to follow him because he looked so stuck.

But as Sea The Stars cut through the field like a hot knife through butter, hurtling his way to racing immortality, neither monks nor magpies could stop him.

"I got a little bit worried at one stage," admitted Tsui who, in his own little way is as unruffled and unflustered as the more experienced jockey, Mick Kinane."I didn't see it too well. Suddenly he dashed to the front and won quite readily. This race has a strong emotional attachment for my family because this is where it all started back in 1993 with Urban Sea. I was just a 12 year-old then and the experience is quite different this time. It brings back a lot of memories. They say I'm the youngest owner to win an Arc now but the owner is not myself, it's my family."

Tsui has been to only two Arcs and has only the one horse in training. When asked how much money his superstitions had won him yesterday he replied, innocently: "£20 in a small bet."

With all the eights in his favour and Sea The Stars carrying the No 18 saddle cloth a less cautious individual might have risked more.

Unlike other Arc winners, Sea The Stars was applauded by the vanquished and it was, perhaps, Fallon on the gallant almost great Youmzain, second for the third time in the race, who summed it up best. "There's nothing wrong in being in being second in probably the best Arc ever run," he said.

And so the national obsession of recalling, each autumn, the incredible surge that took Dancing Brave down the outside past the whole field in 1986 can now be consigned to the archives. Now we will talk of Sea The Stars for the next 30 years, while never forgetting that it was all down to good luck.

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Mick Kinane knows whom to thank!

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I found this on youtube - it isnt the best footage of the world of this great race, but I love the atmosphere and emotions it gets across - awesome!
Source, and with many thanks: rhsy2007 on YouTube

Update 13/10/2009

SEA THE STARS RETIRED AFTER GLITTERING CAREER

from www.sportinglife

John Oxx's brilliant colt Sea The Stars has been retired.

The six-time Group One winner had been in the mix for the Breeders' Cup Classic but connections have decided to call time on his career.

Oxx had intimated after his latest win in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe that retirement was likely for the son of Cape Cross, and it was confirmed in a statement this afternoon.

Oxx said: "It has been decided after discussions with Mr Christopher Tsui (owner) that Sea The Stars will not take part in the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on November 7.

"He's had a long season and has been in regular fast work from March 3, with his final workout on October 2. He's been in intensive training for seven months with only a three-week break after the Eclipse Stakes at the beginning of July.

"We feel it is unfair to keep him going any further given his unprecedented record of achievement in the last six months.

"He's come out of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in his usual good form. He is fit and healthy and has been cantering since the race.

"He is now retiring from racing, but I have no information on stud career details and an announcement will be made at a much later date when plans have been finalised."

The three-year-old lost just one of his nine races during his two years on the track - in which he amassed nearly £4.5million in prize money - and that was his racecourse debut at the Curragh where he finished a close-up fourth.

He then won his maiden on unfavourably soft ground before landing the Grade Two Beresford Stakes, hinting at what was to come this year.

Sent off at 8-1 for the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, he beat hot favourite Delegator by a length and a half and became the first horse since Nashwan 20 years ago to follow up in the Derby, where he beat Fame And Glory by a length and three-quarters.

The Coral-Eclipse was next at Sandown where he beat subsequent Sussex Stakes and QEII winner Rip Van Winkle, with St Leger and Breeders' Cup Turf winner Conduit way back in third.

At York in the Juddmonte International, he scared everyone bar Aidan O'Brien away to make it four Group Ones in a row and followed up in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, beating old rival Fame And Glory.

But his crowning glory came at Longchamp when he landed Europe's premier middle-distance race, overcoming trouble in running and a high-class field to win eased-down in the Arc.

His performance sparked comparisons with the likes of Dancing Brave, Mill Reef and Sea Bird.

Although no definitive answer will ever be reached, one thing is for sure - it will be a long time before we see his like again.

from www.agakhanstuds.com

SEA THE STARS TO STAND AT THE AGA KHAN’S GILLTOWN STUD

The Tsui family ended weeks of speculation today when they announced that they are going to stand their great Champion, Sea The Stars, at HH The Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud in Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Possibly the greatest racehorse of all time Sea The Stars is a sensational looking and regally bred son of Cape Cross out of Urban Sea, who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1993. Sea The Stars was unbeaten this year when he won all his six Group 1 races, the 2000 Guineas in Newmarket, the Epsom Derby, the Eclipse Stakes, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes and finally emulating his dam by easily winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Ling Tsui, mother of Christopher Tsui in whose colours he raced, said “After considering options we have decided to stand Sea The Stars in Ireland at Gilltown Stud, with His Highness the Aga Khan. Gilltown is an ideal stud for Sea The Stars to thrive and develop as a stallion and there is no more appropriate place for him to stand than in his homeland and close to Currabeg where he was trained by John Oxx. His Highness was kind enough to let us stand Sea The Stars at Gilltown while keeping ownership of him and we are most grateful. The staff and facilities at Gilltown are top class and Sea The Stars will enjoy his stay there.”

His Highness the Aga Khan said: “Mrs Tsui and Christopher’s decision to entrust the future career at stud of Sea The Stars to Gilltown Stud farm brings to everyone at the Aga Khan Studs, as well as to me personally, the greatest happiness. We are all proud to have such a remarkable athlete join the Aga Khan stallions at stud, and we are convinced that the Aga Khan mares, who have produced outstanding racehorses during the last 50 years, will breed very well indeed to Sea The Stars. Mrs Tsui and Christopher’s decision is certainly one of the most important developments for my operation since I inherited it in 1960.

I am also most pleased that Mrs Tsui and Christopher will be developing their own breeding operation with the help of their magnificent horse, Sea The Stars. This horse could also help develop relations to bring Chinese investment into the European bloodstock market.

In keeping with the motto of the Aga Khan Studs “success breeds success” I look forward to the earliest opportunity to send my unbeaten champion Zarkava to Sea The Stars. I believe the last two Arc winners were made for each other both in terms of ability, temperament and conformation. The best needs to be bred to the best.”