Date posted September 30, 2009 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Racing and BreedingSea The Stars will be assured of legendary status if he wins Sunday’s Group I Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The stakes are sky high and not just because the race is worth €4m. A victory for Sea The Stars would also be a huge shot in the arm for European racing as he would become the first ever winner of the Group I 2000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and the Arc.
Sea The Stars (Cape Cross - Urban Sea)
Since Mick Kinane kicked the Irish-trained bay colt to victory in Newmarket’s 2000 Guineas in May, the veteran rider has partnered the wonder colt to a Group 1 victory every month since. Nearly twice the age of the Hong Kong owner Christopher Tsui, 27, Kinane constantly tells interviewers that Sea The Stars has given him a ‘new lease of life’.
Now what Sea The Stars and Kinane have to achieve at Longchamp is to repeat what his dam Urban Sea, who died earlier this year, herself achieved back in 1993 under Eric Saint-Martin. But he’ll face a classy group of rivals, for whom the Arc is much too big a prize to be frightened off by just one horse.
According to the bookmakers, the main hurdle to a victory for the John Oxx-trained favourite is Fame And Glory, trained by Aidan O’Brien and a runaway winner of the Irish Derby. If Sea The Stars were not around, he would have won all his seven starts, but Tsui’s star beat him into second place both in the Derby at Epsom and in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on 5 September.
However O’Brien has been quietly suggesting that Sea The Stars may not be invincible.
“Our horse wasn’t involved in an early battle with Sea The Stars at Leopardstown and did not have a gruelling race. It was lovely run, and all the questions will be answered when he’s back up to his best distance (2400m) in the Arc,” says Ireland’s top trainer.
Then there is Cavalryman, trained by Andre Fabre who has won the Arc a record seven times during a 21-year domination as France’s champion trainer. Cavalryman won this month’s Group 2 Prix Niel over the Arc course and distance and that has proven by far the most significant Arc trial in recent years.
Conduit, and brilliant fillies’ Dar Re Mi and Stacelita add spice to the most eagerly awaited horse race in Europe this year.
