AKEED MOFEED WINS BMW HONG KONG DERBY

Click above to watch Akeed Mofeed winning the Hong Kong Derby (Group 1)
(Image : SCMP - Footage : HKJC)

HONG KONG DERBY (Group 1)
Sha Tin, Turf, 2000m
17 March 2013

Racing in the colors of Jaber Abdullah in Europe under the care of trainer John Oxx, Akeed Mofeed (GB) (Dubawi - Wonder Why) broke his maiden at second asking by five lengths at Leopardstown and was beaten into second as the odds-on favorite in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes over heavy ground at The Curragh and called it a season. He was set a nearly impossible task in his 3-year-old debut when facing Camelot (GB) (Montjeu) in the Group 1 Irish Derby last June, and could do no better than fourth of five, but bounced back with an authoritative victory in the Listed Platinum Stakes at Cork in what would be his final European appearance last August.

Akeed Mofeed was given plenty of time to acclimate and made his Hong Kong debut on a domestic rating of 89, effectively assured of a Derby berth with the expected improvement. But very little went as planned in a Class 2 Handicap over 1400 meters on 12 January, when Olivier Doleuze rolled the dice up the fence and got shut off, but Akeed Mofeed was able to re-rally for third, while Doleuze offered a mea culpa and was reprimanded by stewards.

Connections pressed on to the second leg of the 4-year-old series, the 1800-meter Hong Kong Classic Cup on 17 February, and a meeting with stablemate Gold-Fun, who was exiting a handy win in the Hong Kong Classic Mile on 20 January. Ultimately sent off the second favorite to his barnmate, Akeed Mofeed was well back in a moderately run race and got home very well over the final 400 meters, but finished sixth, beaten just under two lengths.

Enter Douglas Whyte, who had ridden Gold-Fun in the Classic Mile and Classic Cup. The ‘Durban Demon’ took the call for a Class 2 handicap over nine panels on 2 March, one final confidence builder for Akeed Mofeed, and his 2 1/2-length victory at 90 cents on the dollar was accomplished with a minimum of fuss and would earn him a quote even smaller for the Derby.

Ideally drawn in three with a short run to the first turn, Akeed Mofeed tucked in just behind the leading foursome in fifth, as Gold-Fun was a bit wide out of the straight. But things got interesting for the Richard Gibson runners as the race reached its halfway point. Gold-Fun began to toss his head while racing in third, and Akeed Mofeed followed suit, causing Whyte to take a hold of him, resulting in him being shuffled back a few spots. Both Gold-Fun and Akeed Mofeed raced three wide on the turn, one in front of the other, and both appeared loaded as they reached the stretch. Gold-Fun made the first move and took over from the weakening pacesetters a furlong and a half from home, but Whyte made a simultaneous move aboard Akeed Mofeed and had him in the crosshairs, grabbed him with 100 meters to race and edged clear. Endowing enjoyed the run of the race on the fence and was just able to touch Gold-Fun out of second.

“I came out the gates beautiful, but they slowed it right down around the 1300 meters mark and I was in all sorts of bother,” said Whyte, winning his third Hong Kong Derby in four years (Super Satin in 2010 and Fay Fay in 2012). “I had a long rein and I had him galloping beautifully, so when I had to come back on his mouth, I didn’t have a short enough rein to get him back - I had to peel off heels and it got a bit messy.”

Vengeance of Rain (NZ) and Ambitious Dragon (NZ) successfully followed up their Derby wins in the Group 1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup. That April 28 race could beckon for Akeed Mofeed.

“The next stage is to see if he can beat the very best of Hong Kong and that’s a massive challenge, so we’ll see how he takes the race and look at it in a couple of weeks,” Gibson said. “When they’re this good you can have any plan you want in your mind, it’s about forming the right plan at the right time with the owner.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

ALL AT SEA

Johnny Murtagh
(Image : Irish Times)

IRISH CHAMPION STAKES (Gr1)
Leopardstown, Turf, 2012m
8 September 2012

Johnny Murtagh may have felt cast adrift when his long-standing riding contract with the powerful Aga Khan stable was severed last month, but trainer John Oxx has remained staunch to the rider, and has retained him for the mount on Born To Sea (the smart half brother to Galileo, Sea The Stars etc,) for Saturday’s Irish Champion Stakes (Gr.1). It promises to be another grand advert for the quality of European racing this season, as it brings together a string of Group One winners including Nathaniel, Snow Fairy and Aidan O’Brien’s St Nicholas Abbey, who will be looking to avenge his defeat at the hands of the superstar, Frankel, a fortnight ago at York.

The Irish Champion Stakes has thrown up any number of quite exceptional performers over the years, including: Sadler’s Wells (1984), Giant’s Causeway (2000), Fantastic Light (2001) who defeated Galileo, High Chaparral (2003), Oratorio (2005), Dylan Thomas (2006 and 2007), New Approach (2008), Sea The Stars (2009), Cape Blanco (2010) and So You Think (2011). Some honour roll! We have our own “almost-hero” of the same race right here at Summerhill in our new stallion, Traffic Guard, who went down a half length to the world’s top-rated three-year-old of 2008, New Approach, now Europe’s hottest young stallion with his first crop.

BORN TO SEA : BORN TO RULE

Click above to watch Born To Sea winning the Blenheim Stakes (L)
(Image : V.Chandler - Footage : All The Doyles)

BORN TO RULE

If ever a horse was born into greatness, it had to be a sibling of the greatest stallion of our era, Galileo, and of arguably the best racehorse of the last decade, Sea The Stars. That horse is Born To Sea, who debuted in the very race that rocketed Brave Tin Soldier to stardom as a juvenile, the Blenheim Stakes (Listed) at 1200m at The Curragh. It wasn’t that he won it, it was the way he won it, and while his trainer John Oxx was loathe to draw comparisons with his illustrious brothers, he did say he had some big plans for the colt.

The son of Invincible Spirit (a sprinting son of Green Desert) is said to be an imposing looking individual, who ought to be better suited by longer distances. His dam, Urban Sea, was an “Arc” winner at 2400m, and both of her most illustrious progeny excelled at that distance. Of course, there’s no guarantee Born To Sea will stay any sort of a trip, but the Invincible Spirits have at least shown some versatility, the odd one (Lawman), prevailing in the French Derby at 2000m. (The French can be different, as we know, and their Derby is 2000m, not the conventional European 2400m).

Interestingly, in the same week, the only horse in history to have won a Breeder’s Cup Juvenile and a Kentucky Derby, Street Sense, celebrated some notable successes in the Keeneland salesring, no doubt on the back of what horsemen know of his progeny, and in a week in which several of his first crop put up convincing performances. With his credentials, few would be surprised to see Street Sense emerge as a cracking sire; we’ve seen a number of them at Southern Hemisphere sales, and they look the sort to find their best in their classic years. Anything that comes to pass while they’re juveniles (as they are at the moment), is a bonus. On the face of what we’ve seen so far, there’s cause for the crew at Darley America to have smiles on their dials.

We have a small syndicate of investors at Summerhill who annually raid the weanling sales in Australia, and in the context of this story, they seem to have hit the jackpot. They have a son of Street Sense who’s being aimed at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale, from the immediate family of Galileo, Sea The Stars and Born To Sea. That’s not the kind of pedigree you’d expect to see at a sale in this country, and it’s a rare jackpot, not only for the vendors, but for anyone among the investing public with a modicum of Street Sense.

The Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale
Sunday 6th November

*Six cheque payment scheme for qualifying buyers.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

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.

SEA THE STARS : THE END OF A BRILLIANT CAREER

Sea The Stars
(Photo : John Gichigi/Getty)

“Please click photo to enlarge…”

RETIREMENT OF SEA THE STARS

Christopher Tsui’s Sea the Stars will not race again after trainer John Oxx made the widely expected announcement.

Yesterday’s announcement brings to an end a run which may never be equaled, as Sea the Stars not only became the first in history to record the 2000 Guineas-Derby-Arc treble - Nijinsky narrowly failed at the final hurdle in 1970 - but also took in the three major 10 - furlong, all-aged contests of the summer in the Eclipse, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes.

John Oxx was left to reflect on a remarkable season later in the afternoon, and found it difficult to single out one of the six achievements as a personal favorite.

“It is hard to say there was any highlight with a horse like that, as they were all major races in their own right,” Oxx added. “When you win a Guineas and a Derby, it becomes even more important for him to win, and as the anxiety builds up as the year goes on, every race brings tremendous relief when it is over. I suppose winning the Derby was marvelous - the way he ran his race there was a joy to watch, with how he handled the track and coasted down the hill before sauntering up the straight waiting to go and win. That was a great sight, and it must be unusual for a trainer to watch his horse in the Derby and feel so comfortable with the way he is going right through the race. After that, he developed a great public following, and everybody quickly realised they were watching something special.

Oxx continued, “There has been great excitement every time from Sandown onwards, and he had a tremendous response from the crowds, and also the wider public towards the end as they realised that there was something special happening.

“In the Arc, I wasn’t as anxious as everyone else was, as although he ran along more strongly in the bridle than most people would like, he could do that and get away with it. I knew he had such a great turn of foot and he could get out of trouble. His success was down to a combination of everything, but mainly to his tremendous cruising speed. Ballydoyle tried their best to put in pacemakers and make it tough for him, but they could never get him off the bridle. He could just travel up behind any pace totally at ease - that’s his big thing - and then quicken up off it. He could do that because he has great heart and lungs, but he’s got this beautiful balance, lovely stride and a great length to him. He’s a big, strong horse – close-coupled in one way, but very long in another and he has this tremendous athletic stride. He also has a great temperament and never worries about anything, was always the calmest horse at the races, and it is courage and temperament at the end of the day that bring the best horses to a different level.”

On top of his unparalleled achievements at three, Sea the Stars also held a commendable record as a juvenile.

While he suffered a sole defeat on his debut when an eye-catching fourth at The Curragh last July, he was off the mark at Leopardstown the following month before registering his first black-type win in The Curragh’s G2 Juddmonte Beresford Stakes in September.

In total, the half-brother to leading sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) boasts a record of 9-8-0-0 while earning £

Stud arrangements have yet to be set, but there have been suggestions that the Tsuis are keen to stand him at the Irish National Stud. That County Kildare-based operation was the scene of his birth April 6, 2006, and currently houses Urban Sea’s final foal by Invincible Spirit. John Clarke, who is the chief executive of the Irish National Stud, also acts as racing manager to Ling Tsui and her son Christopher.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News