SEA THE STARS TO STAND AT GILLTOWN STUD

Sea The Stars and Mick Kinane
(Image : ScottMultiMedia)

THE AGA KHAN TO BREED ZARKAVA TO SEA THE STARS

Sea The Stars, who was retired after a thrilling two-length victory over Youmzain in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on October 4, will enter stud in 2010 at the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud in Co. Kildare, Ireland.

The Bloodhorse reports that the announcement was made early this morning in a release from Gilltown Stud and the family of Christopher Tsui, in whose colors Sea The Stars raced while trained by John Oxx. As part of the announcement, the Aga Khan said he would breed his champion filly Zarkava, the 2008 Arc winner, to the champion son of Cape Cross.

“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,” Ling Tsui, mother of Christopher Tsui, said in a statement. “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.”

“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,” the Aga Khan said in a statement. “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.”

During his 2009 season, Sea The Stars won the stanjames.com Two Thousand Guineas (Gr1), Investec Epsom Derby (Gr1), Coral-Eclipse (Gr1), Juddmonte International Stakes (Eng-I), and the Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes (Gr1) before completing his career October 4 with a two-length victory in the Arc. This season he has earned $6,797,494. In 2008, at 2, he won two of three starts, including the Juddmonte Beresford Stakes (Gr3).

Bred by the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holdings in Ireland, Sea The Stars is out of Urban Sea, the dam of six other stakes winners and three champions: Urban Ocean, champion 3-year-old male in Ireland in 1999; Galileo, champion 3-year-old male in England in 2001; and Black Sam Bellamy, champion 3-year-old male in Italy in 2002.

Urban Sea, who died this spring after delivering a colt by Invincible Spirit, was champion older female in France following her victory in the Arc, and was honored as Broodmare of the Year in England and Ireland in 2001.

URBAN SEA : THE BLUEST OF BLUE HENS

Urban Sea
(Photo : Irish National Stud)

URBAN SEA : THE BROODMARE

In horse breeding, the great mare (or stallion) is as elusive as the needle in the haystack. While most of us like to believe we’re on the scent of one, truth is they are as much a product of happenstance as they are of design. Such a mare is Urban Sea.

The progeny of Urban Sea, who died earlier this year at the age of 20, have landed many of the world’s most prestigious prizes, but until Sunday none had emulated their mother by winning the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. That changed when Sea the Stars went postward in Europe’s richest turf race as the heavy favorite.

Although she remains one of the most influential broodmares in modern history, the story of Urban Sea had humble origins. French breeder Michel Henochsberg needed only approximately $55,000 to acquire her dam Allegretta (GB) (Lombard), who was in foal to Irish Castle, at the 1984 KEENOV sale.

I wanted to buy [Alegretta] because she was quite a good performer,” said Henochsberg, the former chairman of the French and European Breeders’ Associations. “She was second in the [G3] Oaks Trial Stakes at Lingfield. She ran in the Oaks, but she was quite nervous - she was on her toes - and she didn’t perform well. She was sold to the United States, but she didn’t do much there, and they put her in the sale in foal to Irish Castle.”

It wasn’t just Allegretta’s racetrack performance that caught Henochsberg’s attention.

She was out of a fantastic German family that was not fashionable at the time,” he said. “I knew the main bloodlines in Europe, including those in smaller countries like Italy and Germany. This mare was coming from the “A” family, where the mares’ names start with the letter “A”.

“It’s the blood of the stud Gestut Schlenderhan.”

Her first three foals were unremarkable, with handicap horse Irish Allegre (Irish River {Fr}) being the best of the lot. That all changed when Henochsberg decided to send Allegretta to a son of Mr. Prospector.

[Irish Allegre] was a decent horse, but he was not brilliant,” he said. “The entire German family consisted of stayers, and I wanted some Mr. Prospector blood. At that time, he represented speed, at least for Europeans. Miswaki was a good performer in France, and he was a winner at seven furlongs.”

“[Miswaki] was starting to become quite highly regarded in the United States, as he was standing for $40,000 at Walmac Farm. Miswaki was not a big horse. Allegretta was a big mare - workmanlike.”

Getting a season to Miswaki wasn’t easy, but Henochsberg was able to obtain one from then bloodstock agent Barry Weisbord. The resulting foal was a chestnut filly.

“[Urban Sea] had a good structure and a good frame,” Henochsberg recalled. “She was not unfurnished, but she was not the most pleasant yearling. She was a very good walker and a good athlete.”

Like all other horses bred by Henochsberg at the time, she was sold at auction.

Henochsberg set a reserve of FF280,000 (about $50,000) when he offered her at the Deauville Yearling Sale, and she sold for that exact price.

“One bid less, and I would have kept her,” he noted.

Henochsberg admitted Urban Sea’s racing success surprised him, as she took the 1993 G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe en route to being named France’s highweight older mare at 11-14 furlongs.

“As a two-year-old, [Urban Sea] was nothing much,” he said. “As a three-year-old, she was a good group winner. At four, she became a champ. She was always very useful, but she improved. She had a big, big heart. She didn’t really have the structure to be a champion, but she wanted to win.”

Henochsberg, having missed the chance to campaign Urban Sea, attempted to buy an interest in her as a broodmare prospect.

“I had become friends with her current owner, Mrs. Tsui,” he said. “I proposed we make a partnership, breeding her on a foal share to Nureyev, who was one of the most expensive stallions in the U.S.

“We were very close to completing this deal, but she changed her mind.”

While fate worked against Henochsberg with Urban Sea, luck was on his side when he tried to sell Allegretta’s sixth foal, Allez Les Trois (Riverman). She failed to meet her reserve of FF550,000, and she would go on to win the G3 Prix de Flore and finish third in the G3 Saratoga Breeders’ Cup Handicap. As a broodmare, Allez Les Trois produced the 2001 G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Anabaa Blue (GB) (Anabaa). Turbaine (Trempolino), also out of Allegretta, produced MGSW Tertullian (Miswaki) and GSW Terek (Ger) (Irish River {Fr}).

Allegretta saved one of her best runners for her later years when, in 1997, she foaled the eventual G1 English 2000 Guineas winner King’s Best (Kingmambo). Pensioned after coming up barren in 2000 and 2001, Allegretta died in 2005 at the age of 27. Despite having passed on, Allegretta’s impact on the breed has been guaranteed by Urban Sea, whose son by Sadler’s Wells, Galileo (Ire), has established himself as one of the finest young stallions in the world. Her son Black Sam Bellamy (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) plies his trade in Germany. Stud plans for Sea the Stars have yet to be determined.

Henochsberg, a professor of economics at the University of Paris, credits Urban Sea for Sea the Stars’ brilliance.

“Sea the Stars looks like a typical Cape Cross or Green Desert,” he said. “He’s a very handsome colt with a lot of power, but obviously there is something inside that comes from Urban Sea. This mixture seems to be something great. I hope I’ll have another filly like her, but it’s very doubtful.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

URBAN SEA DEAD

Urban Sea
(Photo : Irish National Stud)

URBAN SEA, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine and mother to Sadler’s Wells’ best racing son and European leading Sire, Galileo, has died during foaling complications at the Irish National Stud. Urban Sea gave birth to a colt by Invincible Spirit who has been placed with a nurse mare.

The French filly, Urban Sea, was bred by Paul de Moussac’s Marystead Farm and was foaled in Kentucky in 1989. Her sire was Miswaki, a son of the highly influential Mr Prospector.

Urban Sea had a competitive racing career which started as a two-year-old in 1991 and included victories in the Prix de la Seine, Challenge d’Or Piaget, Prix Exbury (Gr3), Prix d’Harcourt (Gr2), Prix Gontaut-Biron (Gr3) and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr1), where she defeated fourteen Group 1 winners, before a fetlock injury retired her to stud as a five-year-old in 1994.

After retiring to stud in Ireland, Urban Sea was soon to became one of the world’s most successful broodmares. Her first foal by Bering, born in 1996, went on to win the 1999 Gallinule Stakes (Gr3) and her 1997 filly by Lammtarra was to fetch the highest price ever paid for a yearling at the 1998 Deauville Sales, a staggering EUR1,500,000.

Huge success began when Urban Sea’s owner, David Tsui, bred Urban Sea with Coolmore’s Sadler’s Wells, the result was a colt named Galileo. Galileo went on to win the Epsom Derby (Gr1), the first progeny of Sadler’s Wells to do so, the Irish Derby (Gr1) and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr1) before being voted European Champion Three-Year-Old in 2001. We all know the success of Galileo as a sire today.

Urban Sea was bred again to Sadler’s Wells resulting in Black Sam Bellamy, winner of the Gran Premio del Jockey Club (Gr1) and the Tattersalls Gold Cup (Gr1).

In 2002 Urban Sea foaled a filly by Giant’s Causeway, named My Typhoon, who went on to fetch a record US$2,955,000 at the December Tattersalls Sale. My Typhoon has subsequently won several US Stakes races including the Diana Handicap (Gr1).

The influence of Urban Sea on the world of thoroughbred racing has spanned almost two decades and the class of this broodmare will be sorely missed.

The Summerhill team extend our sincere condolences.

NB : On a positive note and of interest is to the local market is that Lot 483 on our National Yearling Sales Draft is a Malhub filly who comes from the female line of Urban Sea. The filly is a first foal out of Modraj (By Machiavellian) out of a half sister to Darley’s King’s Best and Urban Sea.

Click here to view the pedigree of Lot 483