Not for the first time, the descendants of the great broodmare and 1993 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea dominated a major race day over the weekend.
Enable – champion
Sarah Whitelaw writes that recently the chestnut Urban Sea dominated the finish of Gr1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – she is found in the pedigrees of all of Enable, Sea Of Class, Cloth Of Stars, Waldgeist, Capri, Salouen, and Nelson.
The first eight past the post in this year’s Arc all carry Urban Sea up close in their pedigree, which must be an all but unheard of achievement for a broodmare in recent times.
Urban Sea’s Epsom Derby winning sons Galileo and Sea The Stars both got among the winners at Champions Day this past Saturday, with Galileo’s greatest son Frankel also making his mark on the day.
Galileo
Galileo reached a major milestone when his 3yo daughter Magical became the great sire’s 74th individual Gr1 winner when she won the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, over a high class field – Dubawi daughters ran 2-3-4 in the Fillies & Mares Stakes, with Galileo daughter Hydrangea running fifth. Magical’s victory took Galileo’s list of top flight winners to one more than the 73 Gr1 winners sired by his own legendary sire Sadler’s Wells.
Magical and Hydrangea, who won the Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes in 2017, are full sisters to the South African stallions Flying The Flag and The United States respectively and both are out of mares by outstanding broodmare sire Pivotal. Remarkably, Galileo and his sire sons were responsible for eight of the 11 runners in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes.
Galileo’s unbeaten champion Frankel is the sire of the exceptional Cracksman, who made it back to back triumphs in the Gr1 Qipco Champion Stakes by romping to a six length triumph in Saturday’s ten furlong contest – leaving multiple Gr1 winners Capri and Rhododendron struggling in his wake.
Cracksman – superstar ended his track career on a high
Cracksman, whose sire won the Champion Stakes in 2012 – Frankel’s own brother Noble Mission went on to take the same race two years later – had recorded a seven length victory in the 2017 Champion Stakes over subsequent dual Gr1 winner Poet’s Word, and he is the first since Klawervlei Stud’s prominent young sire Twice Over to win the race twice.
He retires to stud having won four Gr1 races (by more than 17 lengths) and is, to date, by some way the best horse sired by Frankel. The latter is one of a growing number of Galileo sire sons to have produced Gr1 winners with others including Enable’s sire Nathaniel, Teofilo (his sire Havana Gold is responsible for 2018 Gr1 hero Havana Grey), New Approach, Intello, Ruler Of The World, and Sixties Icon. Galileo is also responsible for the very exciting young Australia, whose first 2yos this season include Gr2 winner Beyond Reason.
Star Struck
Galileo’s six time Gr1 winning half-brother Sea The Stars – a better racehorse than Galileo – also enjoyed a memorable day on Saturday.
Stardivarius – unbeaten in 2018
His remarkable son Stradivarius maintained his unbeaten record in 2018 when staying on to post a somewhat controversial one and a half length win in the Gr2 Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup. Stradivarius, who picked up a £1 000 000 bonus when he lifted the Gr2 Lonsdale Cup in August, has now won five major staying races this year and is a shoe in to be named champion stayer.
Stradivarius is a half-brother to local broodmare Magical Eve, whose better performances included a third place effort in the Listed Scarlet Lady of 2012.
His paternal half-brother Crystal Ocean finished a well beaten second to Cracksman in Saturday’s Champion Stakes, to round off a good day for the once beaten Sea The Stars.
The latter, whose brilliant Deutsches Derby winning son Sea The Moon has made a tremendous start to his stud career, has enjoyed plenty of success in 2018 with his runners including dual Oaks winner, and arguably unlucky Arc runner up, Sea Of Class.
Sea Side
Urban Sea, dam of both Galileo and Sea The Stars, has once again exerted tremendous influence in 2018.
Urban Sea
Not only have both Galileo and Sea The Stars enjoyed huge success again this year, but Urban Sea also features as the dam of 2018’s very exciting two-year-old Just Wonderful (by Dansili).
The latter, whose dam is Urban Sea’s Gr2 Rockfel Stakes winning granddaughter Wading (Montjeu), is regarded as a live classic hope for 2019, having won three of six outings this year including the Gr2 Shadwell Rockfel Stakes. Whatever the future holds, there are very few more exciting future stud prospects than Just Wonderful!
New Approach star Masar wins The Investec Derby.
There also a growing number of high class horses who are inbred to Urban Sea, with the 2018 Investec Derby winner Masar – by Galileo son New Approach out of Urban Sea’s UAE Derby winning great granddaughter Khawlah – being the poster boy for that group of thoroughbreds.
Urban Sea’s Gr1 winning sire Miswaki exerted even more dominance than did his greatest daughter at Ascot on Saturday, with the son of Mr Prospector also sire of Panis, whose son Sands Of Mali captured the Gr1 British Champions Sprint Stakes over six furlongs. It was a first Gr1 triumph for Sands Of Mali, a first Gr1 winner sired by Panis.
