Sea The Stars Wins Cartier Horse of the Year Award

A man and his horse:  Mick Kinane and Sea The Stars fly to the finish line in record time with absolute trust and confidence in The Juddmonte International Stakes Group 1 at York Racecourse.  Alex Livesey/Getty Images Sport

Not only is Sea The Stars the highest-rated horse in the world according to the World Thoroughbred Rankings, he has been voted Cartier Horse of the Year and Cartier Champion Three-Year-Old Colt in the Cartier Racing Awards (similar to the USA's Eclipse).

STS is generally acknowledged to be the best Turf horse of the decade.  Others believe he is the greatest Turf horse in history and rank him with the top Dirt champions like Man O'War, Seabiscuit, Kelso, Secretariat, etc.  

The Cartier awards are voted by a panel including members of the media and readers of the Racing Post and Daily Telegraph.


John Oxx, Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit 2009 

Sea The Stars' extraordinary trainer, John Oxx of Ireland, was awarded the Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit 2009 by the special 18-member Cartier Jury for his lifetime training achievements and for having done more for European racing than any other in 2009.

In addition to training such outstanding horses as STS, Sinndar, Alamshar, Azamour, Alandi, Kastoria, Four Sins, Katiyra, he has found time to serve on committees of the Irish Equine Centre Board (Oxx is a qualified veterinarian), Irish Horseracing Authority, Punchestown and Mallow racecourses and RACE.  He has been chairman of Leopardstown racecourse since 2007.

Oxx is a kind, gracious, thoughtful person who has always put the welfare of his horses and training team before monetary or public success.  He is widely known for his exceptional integrity and quiet courage.

Goldikova is the Cartier Champion Older Horse.

St Nicholas Abbey is the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt.

Special Duty is the Cartier Champion Two-Year-Old Filly.

Sariska is the Cartier Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.

Yeats is the Cartier Champion Stayer.

Fleeting Spirit is the Cartier Champion Sprinter.

UPDATE:  The embargo on the Cartier Awards press release was clearly honoured as none of the winners knew they won--except Sea The Stars of course.  

His trainer John Oxx was completely surprised and said "It's hard to know what to say when you've been so badly caught out."  Typically, he gave full credit to Sea The Stars, the Tsui family, the people who do the work and his "unsung heroine"--Catriona his wife. 

Sea The Stars' young owner Christopher Tsui dedicated the award to his mother Ling (at home in Hong Kong) who bred STS out of the family's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea who died earlier this year after having her final foal. 

Touchingly Tsui said, "It was her (his mother's) love and faith for Urban Sea, her relentless passion and dedication to breed from her and her understanding of the thoroughbred that made it all possible.  Fifteen years ago she was alone in thinking that Urban Sea would become the best broodmare in the world.  Today I think it would be fairly difficult to disagree with her." 

Urban Sea is also the dam of Galileo IRE (Sadler's Wells USA), sire of Teofilo and New Approach to name merely a few. 

Owner/breeder of Goldikova, Gerard Wertheimer (with his brother Alain) spoke of her great victories in the Falmouth Stakes, the Prix Rothschild, the Prix Jacques Marois and her second Breeders' Cup Mile. 

In a great understatement he said, "I think these successes have proved without a doubt that she is truly of international class."

The Wertheimer blue and white colours will be 100 years old in 2011.

Derrick Smith, co-owner of St Nicholas Abbey IRE (Montjeu IRE), said "It was apparent from very early on that St Nicholas Abbey had everything that a top two-year-old should have."

J P Magnier accepted the award for Yeats IRE (Sadler's Wells USA) on behalf of his parents and the David Nagles with the following comment:  "I'd like to thank Aidan (trainer O'Brien) and all the team at Ballydoyle for managing to keep the horse sound for so many years and winning seven Group Ones, including the Coronation Cup and four Ascot Gold Cups.  Our livers will be able to have a break next year, which is a sigh of relief!"

"Special Duty USA (Hennessy USA) is a real product of Juddmonte in that her mother (Quest To Peak USA) was trained by the late, great Bobby Frankel", according to Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager for Prince Khalid Abdulla, owner of Juddmonte Farms.  

SD was conceived in the US, foaled in England, broken in Ireland and sent to French trainer Criquette Head-Maarek who has produced everyone's favourite 1000 Guineas prospect. 

Head-Maarek's brother Freddie Head is the trainer of France's outstanding filly Goldikova.

Sir Anthonly Bamford stood in for his wife Lady Bamford who is the owner/breeder of Sariska (Pivotal).  He acknowledged not being horsey or knowing much about racing but admitted that "Sariska is now at home with us at the moment.  She hasn't yet been in the kitchen, which the ponies used to do, but perhaps next year." 

It appears that both the Bamfords love their lovely "tank". 

The Searchers were represented by Paul Roy who could not resist comparing their sweet filly Fleeting Spirit IRE (Invincible Spirit IRE) to one of the Searchers great songs 'Sweets for My Sweet'. 

"Fleeting Spirit is an absolutely wonderful filly...she will hopefully be out again next year."

All winning connections expressed gratitude to Cartier and its UK managing director Arnaud Bamberger for the company's 19 years of support for the Oscars of European horseracing.  The event was hosted by Cartier's racing consultant Henry Herbert with Bamberger presenting the Awards.

The event had drama, pathos, gratitude and deep emotion. 

What it lacked was controversy over the riches of having two fabulous fillies who are both qualified to be Horse of the Year (for those who cannot guess:  Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta).



Sea The Stars Retires to Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud

The waiting is over and so is the bidding war. 

The Tsui family, owner-breeders of the world's highest-rated horse in 2009 and arguably the greatest Turf horse to have lived, have chosen to retain full ownership of Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE) and stand him in his home country of Ireland at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud.

The Stud is close to Currabeg where STS was trained by John Oxx and his brother starts his training.  It is also close to the Irish National Stud where he was born to another Arc winner the late Urban Sea USA (Miswaki USA). 

The Tsui's have also acceded to an emotional public's demand to breed STS with fellow Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava IRE (Zamindar USA).

The magnificent 4yo Zarkava, described as "my unbeaten champion" by the Aga Khan, won all of her seven career races (which included five G1s and one Group 3) in France under jockey Christophe Soumillon and ace trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre.

His Highness commented that "Mrs Tsui and Christopher's decision is certainly one of the most important developments for my operation since I inherited it in 1960."

"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."

Enough romance and back to business.

"This horse (Sea The Stars) could also help develop relations to bring Chinese investment into the European bloodstock market." said HH.

Sea The Stars' first season fee will be 85,000 Euros with a book of approximately 120 mares.  

The Tsui decision was sensitive to Ireland's great contribution to Sea The Stars' career and showed gratitude for the country's outstanding record of horse care and produce.

Himself will be a great draw to an Ireland that has suffered serious economic reversals.

The canny Tsuis also were wise to retain full control over their prodigy and delegate stud management to one of the best in the world--the honourable Aga Khan.



UPDATE:  Trainer John Oxx announced today (October 13, 2009) that the great champion Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE) would retire to stud. 

Oxx said that, since the horse had been on the go since March 3 to October 4 with no rest from training, STS has done more than enough and is well.

No word yet on which stud with rumours abounding that he would join Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Stud.  The Sheikh has made no secret of his wanting his Cape Cross' son to join his sire at Darley.

The bidding war begins in earnest.


UPDATE:  Timeform left Sea The Stars with his 140 rating and the Racing Post left him with 135, but the RP believes his performance in the Arc was only 131.

Legendary Dancing Brave won the Arc in 1989 with a 141 rating.  Ever since I moved to England, I was told no horse could equal DB.  Now even his greatest fans acknowledge that STS has or bettered him.

The experts held out the hope that, if Rip Van Winkle wins the Breeders' Cup Classic, they might rate STS higher based on his having beaten Rip three times.

Bookmakers gave 40/1 odds that STS would rate 139 or less.  Given the handicappers, it was a sucker bet and they made a bundle.

I, and many, wonder what race the handicappers were watching.

No decision has been made if STS will participate in the Breeders' Cup Classic though his trainer John Oxx thinks seven group 1's since May "is a big ask".

He came out of the race without a cut and is eating up.

Owner Christopher Tsui said that he will not sell the horse (with an estimated value of £50-100 million) and he shall stand at stud in Ireland.

October 5, 2009


Sea The Stars Won the Arc de Triomphe--6th Group 1

We have our answer.  No horse could beat Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE) in the Qatar Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe--no matter how much trouble he gave his 50yo jockey Michael Kinane in wanting to take on any horse with the nerve to get by him.

Fresh, happy, ears pricked, powerful and loved; he just wanted to race. 

Everywhere he went he was greeted with awe.  When he entered the paddock before the race, the crowd burst into spontaneous applause--something none of us ever heard before. 

Crowds travelled over from Ireland and England to join French fans in seeing the 'legend' no one could imagine losing.  And no one wanted him to lose.

One could feel the will for him to "do it".  Win, win for us--all of us who love flat racing and desperately want a hero.

Do what no other horse has done.  Win six Group 1's in a year including two Classics, the Guineas and Derby, the Eclipse, Juddmonte International Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes and the Arc de Triomphe.

Hero he is.  Win he did. 

For once he was sweating before a race, jumped out of his stall, keenly charged ahead and took some serious restraining to settle farther back than the crowd could tolerate.  One felt and smelled fear.

But not Kinane.  He fought his horse for control, held him firmly, cleverly covered him, kept him off the rail leaving every escape route and waited for a gap at the right moment to unleash the gears and sprinter's speed.

Once he did, the race was over.  STS scythed through the two fillies in the lead, Stacelita and Dar Re Mi, leaving the field behind by two lengths.

Magnificent Youmzain made his move when Sea The Stars did to cop second (for the third year in a row) and Godolphin's handsome 3yo Cavalryman nailed third, Conduit fourth and, YES, Dar Re Mi fifth in the money for £111,068.  Fame And Glory took sixth and Stacelita seventh.

The crowd went wild.  No one has seen anything like it in flat racing.

STS' trainer John Mortimer Oxx has said of being with him every day "He is just so perfect.  Nothing looks like him.  Nothing is like him."

Was he worried he could not get out and win so far behind?  "No, not really.  He has the gears and the speed to get out of anywhere."

STS won his sixth Group 1 since May, has never been beaten in two years of racing, gave his trainer his second Arc (Sinndar in 2000), gave his jockey his third Arc (Carroll House in 1989, Montjeu in 1999) and gave his young owner Christopher Tsui of Hong Kong his first. 

He catapulted his Darley sire Cape Cross to an unmatchable position of 2009 top-earning sire with today's purse of £2,219,029 and he matched his outstanding late dam Urban Sea in winning the Arc (1993).

He assured himself Cartier Horse of the Year and Cartier Three-Year-Old of the Year. 

He is compared to the greats: Brigadeer Girard, Ribot, Sea Bird, Mill Reef, Nijinsky and Dancing Brave. 

Whilst Nijinsky won the English Triple Crown (Guineas, Derby and St Leger) in one year, no other horse has won the Guineas, Derby and Arc in one year until today.

And he can add another first.  He could win the Breeders' Cup Classic. 

Mick Kinane said, when he sat the two-year-old Sea The Stars, "I couldn't believe my luck."

Nor can we believe all our luck--the quintessential racehorse.


Can Any Horse Beat Sea The Stars In L'Arc?

Every jockey will be riding his horse to win in Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in spite of the overwhelming presence of the 137-140+ rated 3yo colt, Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE).

The outstanding colt has his preferred good ground that will play to his natural speed and he is in the ideal stall 6 in a field of 19.  Since 1964, only 18 winners have come from stalls higher than 10 and most from 7 or below. 

Competitors hope he can be beaten by bad luck, not feeling like racing on the day, one race too many, jockey error, a Rules' infraction (the French stewards wouldn't dare a repeat of Dar Re Mi, would they?), congestion and traffic problems (pinning him in as Cash Asmussen did to Peintre Celebre in 1997), lack of stamina at 1m4f (except for the 1m4f English Derby, he has not won at greater distances than 1m2f--as if winning the Derby proves nothing!), heated distraction by the proximity of the lovely filly DRM, etc.

STS' trainer will have him 100% fit.  John Oxx understands the race and won it with Sinndar in 2000. 

Jockey Michael Kinane has won the Arc twice and knows all the tricks of the course, stewards, Rules and other jockeys. 

Kinane and STS share absolute trust and confidence in each other.

Aiden O'Brien removed one of his pacemakers for Fame And Glory IRE (Montjeu IRE).  His sire won the Arc in 1999 with Kinane on board. 

FAG comes from stall 15, his pacemaker Set Sail from 14, and Kieren Fallon of the notorious Dylan Thomas episode (see Dar Re Mi French 'Farce') rides Youmzain IRE (Sinndar IRE) in stall 1.

STS breezes through races that wipe out other very good horses trying to keep up with him and he returns fresh to the Winner's Circle. 

He seems a colt hungry to race more and harder in the American 'Secretariat' style.  He is still entered in the Darley Champion Stakes, October 17, at Newmarket and the Breeders' Cup November 7. 

It is not inconceivable that he could win all three races.

Realistically, the other jockeys are running for place money.

Then again, luck is necessary and fickle. 

Just look at the filly Stacelita:  she was the at the critical centre of a controversy she did not cause, did not get her ground, drew wide and lost her jockey.  Then she acquired Christophe Soumillion.

Anything can happen. 


World Loves Its 138+ Complete Racehorse

Is there any wonder all but three horses defected from The Juddmonte International Stakes (Group 1), 1m2f (2000 metres), with Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE) running in it? 

STS is now variously rated at 131+, 133+, 136+  and 138+ by ratings experts.  At any of those numbers, he is the world's highest-rated race horse.

From what I have seen, he is getting better and better every time he races. 

I have seen him in person in all his UK races (four Group 1s in 2009) and I have never seen him go through a pain barrier. 

STS comes back to the Winners' Circles with the damp sweat and slightly bulging veins of a good workout not from a race that challenged his reserve power.  

Race by race, his master jockey Michael Kinane has dealt with his exuberant bursting from the stalls like Dubai Millennium and his keenness to burn off the opposition with his tremendous speed like DM. 

These qualities in common show a powerful similarity between these two extraordinarily fast horses who have dominated 1m2f or 1-1/4 miles. 

The exceptional respect and confidence the horse and jockey have in each other allows Kinane to conserve Sea The Stars' energy with a comfortable seat (see photo above), minimum hand-and-bit tension and only a gentle steering tap of the whip to wake him up for his flattening final run.

Both Kinane and gentleman trainer John Oxx accept that the horse is smart enough to expend no more energy than necessary to win by a length and no more.

STS ignores his critics who demand annihilating-length victories and just does enough with ruthless efficiency.

I suspect we could be looking at a 140+ horse who may never get to prove how extraordinary he is--given that there may be no horses good enough to push him to his limits. 

Only Ballydoyle/Coolmore gave him a proper race in both the Eclipse and the International. 

They were brave enough to send Rip Van Winkle IRE (Galileo IRE) to the Eclipse and three Danehill Dancer Ire colts, including Mastercraftsman IRE, to the International. 

They had little chance of defeating STS unless he had an off day, was beaten by clever race tactics or mugged.  The latter option never factored. 

In each of his races, trainer Aiden O'Brien and jockey Johnny Murtagh tested Sea The Stars with every imaginable strategy and several pacemakers per race to no avail.

STS seems to have no chink in his armour of exceptional versatility. 

The one fair criticism his critics could make in the International is that STS was so relaxed just keeping up with the courageous, flat-out
Mastercraftsman he almost went to sleep waiting for the tap to "GO". 

Once he got that tap, he imperceptibly glided gears to win in record-breaking time. 

He is such a big horse that the speed is not apparent until he passes speeding horses at their best and breaks course records. 

Ballydoyle have proven themselves to be great sports and fair players in a very nice race.

Their immediate benefits were walking home with three place purses totaling £225,960 and Mastercraftsman, like Rip Van Winkle, was tested and upgraded in ratings for racing so well against Sea The Stars. 

Sea The Stars has not only become the benchmark for all European turf horses, but is their trainer taking them to new progressive heights.

Tentative rating for STS in the International is 131+ as he hardly exerted himself, but that number could be raised if Mastercraftsman earns a very significant rise.  Both deserve it.

I asked trainer Oxx how he would rate his Sea The Stars and he said he could not, but was impressed at how much Mastercraftsman improved his ratings during the race with STS.

Modest Oxx would never admit it, but might agree that he could have a 140+ horse who will not ever be able to prove it.

Generosity was the byword between opposing sides and that befitted the warm and friendly Yorkshire crowd who took both sides to heart.

When it was announced that Sea The Stars was crossing the Knavesmire to the Parade Ring, hundreds rushed from the stands to join the thousands already waiting to see him. 

They were clearly awed and many used the word 'privilege' to describe their feelings about seeing him in the flesh.

The British have taken Irish STS on as their champion as he has just won his fourth Group 1 this year in Britain and may race in the October Champions Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse.

When Johnny Murtagh returned to the Winners' Circle with his brave Mastercraftsman, after being defeated by STS, the Yorkshire audience gave them both a tremendous ovation.  Ballydoyle connections seemed surprised and touched.

Then the Stars ambled in and racegoers erupted.  He was unfazed and his charming young owner Christopher Tsui, though wildly excited, gave no hint of fainting again (the Eclipse) even with a media and crowd blitz.

Everything was beautifully orchestrated by York Racecourse including a deserved lap of honour giving everyone more chances to see and applaud STS.

Written August 19, 2009.


Sea The Stars "The Real Deal"


My view of Sea The Stars has been consistent as I have written above on August 19th. 

I have always thought I was in the presence of one of the greatest horses I might ever be privileged to see.  The more I have seen of him the more I am convinced.

Finally, two writers from the Racing Post comment August 23rd on Sea The Stars: 

"We might observe that the greatness of Sea The Stars is directly reflected through his back-to-back stunning time performances in the Eclipse and International Stakes.  The second one tells you that the first one didn't take that much out of him, definitive poof that his is one of the greatest horses of all time in my book."  James Willoughby, Feature Writer

"Sea The Stars confirms his position as the highest rated horse in the world not needing to match his outstanding Eclipse (131+ in the Juddmonte International Stakes) winning mark of 134, while again leaving the impression that we have yet to see the best of him."  Paul Curtis, Racing Post Ratings