Stallion Review: A stellar season for Sea The Stars

Already an established name throughout Europe from his eight foal crops to race, Sea The Stars again made the headlines in 2018, with Stradivarius and Sea of Class crowning another white-hot year for the now-12-year-old Derby, 2,000 Guineas and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner.

Among his nine Group 1 winners, the 'game and reliable' Stradivarius won all five starts in 2018, with British victories in the Yorkshire, Gold, Goodwood, Lonsdale and Long Distance Cups, in the process landing his connections a million-pound bonus and cementing his status as Europe's top stayer.

"Stradivarius - a horse in a million" Will he able able to repeat his wins in the Yorkshire Cup, Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and Lonsdale Cup next year? #EborHighlights pic.twitter.com/EVQHfOx9qE

— Racing UK (@racing_uk) August 26, 2018

Sea of Class, a similarly high-class performer who was unraced as a two-year-old, won four of her six starts including the Irish Oaks at the Curragh in July, coming from last to first in the straight to wear down Forever Together, and the Yorkshire Oaks at York the following month, seeing off Coronet by two-and-a-quarter lengths in a field that included Prix de Diane winner Laurens. She then produced her best effort to finish a game second in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in October, going down by only a short neck to the peerless Enable.

Sea The Stars' high-class son Cloth of Stars failed to hit the board in 2018 but placed in five of his seven starts, most notably thirds in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan, and the Prix Ganay and Arc at Longchamp (he finished second to Enable the previous year). Among Sea The Stars' useful minor winners, Waldstern, Solar Gold, Rionach and Raa Atoll all stayed at least a mile and made the frame in British listed or Group company, with the last-named running a good fourth in the mile-and-a-half King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.

Across Europe, the smart Group 1-placed middle-distance specialist Stellar Mass couldn’t win this year, but did finish second in Ireland's International and Ballyroan Stakes over the summer. The similarly-rated Clear Skies finished third in Ireland’s Blue Wind Stakes in May and stayed a mile-and-a-half. Sea The Stars' French performers include the filly Listen In, who reaffirmed her smart Timeform rating with a career-best effort in the mile-and-a-half Prix du Conseil de Paris at Chantilly in October, when she scored by a neck. Kharkov, Baiyouna, Tabularasa and Starmaniac all won smaller features between a mile and a mile-and-a-half and Almodovar’s two outings in 2018 included a smart runner-up effort in the Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp in May, a race in which he was only headed inside the final furlong by Recoletos.

Additionally, the useful two-year-old Star Terms won a couple of British seven furlong races, was then upped to a mile and finished second in the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster and then ran third in the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp in October, not getting a particularly clear run and yielding by just a neck to the winner Lily’s Candle. The very smart Knight To Behold won the mile-and-a-quarter Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville in August (along with the Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield earlier in the season). In Italy, the smart older mare Night Music enhanced her middle-distance credentials by winning Milan’s Gran Premio di Milano and the Premio Federico Tesio in the second half of the year.

Great ride, @oismurphy 👍@LingfieldPark Derby Trial winner Knight To Behold bounces back in fine style to land the Group 2 Prix Guillaume D'Ornano at Deauville for @HarryDunlop3 pic.twitter.com/AuoQ1BmZ37

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) August 15, 2018

Further afield, Sea The Stars was represented by a few Southern Hemisphere runners, including minor Australian winners Serenade The Stars, Shraaoh and Fifty Stars, and the Chilean winner Estrella del Norte.

Of his Northern Hemisphere ‘runners of all ages’ in 2018, Sea The Stars was represented by 174 runners, of which 74 (43%) have won to date, down from 50% the previous year. Also this term, 13 of his 40 two-year old runners got off the mark (33%), significantly up from just four winners in 2017 and representing his best year so far for number of two-year-old winners. Of these, Star Terms and Fox Tal have already placed at Group 1 level. Although Sea The Stars is noted more as a sire of later-maturing types, he won over seven furlongs as a two-year-old and it will be interesting to see which direction his future two-year-old winner-to-runner ratio goes.

Unsurprisingly, Sea The Stars nicks well with mares by Sadler's Wells, previously responsible for the Oaks and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Taghrooda, and represented this year by Knight To Behold and Almodavar. Other top nicks include Kingmambo (Cloth of Stars), Danehill (Stellar Mass) and Monsun, damsire of Deutsches Derby winner, as well as 2018 first-season sire Sea The Moon, who had Night Music and the listed-placed Sahelian as his representatives in 2018.

Sea The Stars currently ranks an impressive fourth on the Leading Sires table in Great Britain and Ireland by prizemoney, below his illustrious half-brother Galileo, Dubawi and Frankel. With total annual earnings of £3,293,285 to date, this represents a leap both in ranking and total prizemoney from the previous year, in which he finished in eighth place with £2,010,334. He has held his third-place ranking on the equivalent French table, behind Nathaniel and Siyouni, with total annual earnings of £2,294,722, a slight increase on 2017. On the European Leading Sires table, his third-placed ranking and total prizemoney of £5,817,153 is another yearly increase, this time of two places and from £4,252,231.

In conclusion, Sea The Stars should have no problem in maintaining a high-level status among his fellow luminaries. His reputation as a sire of classy middle-distance/staying types looks rock solid, and is currently bolstered by his having no less than 22 entries in next year's Derby, with a further three targeting its Irish equivalent. He stands at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in County Kildare, Ireland, for a 2019 fee of €135,000.