Sons of Stars now performing on a different stage

Sea The Stars turned 20 this year and yet one recalls his historic Classic season as freshly as if it were yesterday. Knocking out Group 1 after Group 1, month after month, with metronomic efficiency in 2009, on varying ground descriptions, from a mile to ten furlongs to a mile and a half, with the least exertion possible, the secret to his high-class consistency over that sustained golden period made him unique in the modern iteration of flat racing.

The son of Cape Cross and Urban Sea has also had a fantastic career as a stallion, producing winners of the Derby and Oaks, as well as their Irish equivalents, and a host of other Group 1-winning performers.

While six-time Group 1 winner Baaeed (135) is his highest rated offspring, perhaps the crowning glory for the Gilltown Stud doyen so far was Daryz becoming the third generation of his family to be victorious in the Arc last October, following in the hooves of his sire and granddam.

After a facile comeback triumph in the Group 1 Prix Aga Khan IV last month, the Francois Graffard four-year-old could face a blockbuster battle with Ombudsman and a host of other Group 1 winners in Wednesday’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The fact that Sea The Stars has produced champions on the flat is no surprise – nor should it be – but, with his temperament, versatility and improvement with age, it’s also possible he might become a significant influence on the jumps scene as well. That said, it isn’t that he has sired National Hunt behemoths himself. At €300,000 a pop, he isn’t covering jumps mares, needless to say!

At the time of writing, he is operating off a 40% winners-to-runners strike rate over obstacles, and 10% wins-to-runs success. That is compared with 63% and 16% in those categories in his normal sphere of expertise. The ill-fated Starchitect, trained by David Pipe, was his best jumps horse on ratings, competing off 148 when suffering a fatal injury while running away with the Grade 3 Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham in December 2017. He seems an outlier, albeit that there have been plenty of multiple winners in the likes of Alnilam (137), Hallowed Star (135) and Zeeband (133).

If Sea The Stars is not a sire of really talented jumpers himself though, it is evident that, more and more, his stallion sons are. Four of them have already produced Grade 1 winners and are short odds to add to that tally.

HARZAND is one of the up-and-coming bright-eyed boys, standing at Con and Claire O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge just outside Waterford city. The dual Derby winner’s highest-rated offspring to date is Hello Neighbour (151), who won a Listed handicap hurdle at the recent Punchestown Festival. Trained by Gavin Cromwell, he had also been a Grade 1-winning juvenile at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival the previous season.

Hello Neighbour, seen winning at the recent Punchestown Festival, is the highest-rated son of his sire, Harzand

Meanwhile, Zanoosh added to the tally at Fairyhouse in April, at the end of a hugely progressive season. Her Grade 1 Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle triumph was a fifth win on the trot and, while no match for the winner, finishing second against the geldings when stepping up to three miles at Punchestown hardly dented her reputation. She was bound for fences next year but Colm Murphy must now be considering a Mares’/Stayers’ Hurdle programme.

Harzand’s highest-priced offspring is Caught U Looking, whom Yulong bought for 1.8 million guineas at Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale at the end of 2024, but his highest sales yield for a NH horse to date is the €185,0000 Tom Malone paid for Presley at Tattersalls’ Derby Sale the previous June.

The half-brother to five winners has been placed in two bumpers as a beaten favourite, but you certainly would not be losing hope, judging by the fact that the success rate of Harzand’s progeny in bumpers is less than half his 48% winners-to-runners clip over hurdles. All the right people are buying his stock and there are five of them – one two-year-old and four stores – on offer at the Derby Sale next week.

AFFINISEA was a typically astute acquisition by Whytemount Stud’s late, lamented boss, Ronnie O’Neill. The sire originally made his name at the Co. Kilkenny premises for his prolific rate of covering. The calibre of his books has improved with results, and after two Grade 1s in a month from Christmas to the end of January, that graph will surely continue on an upward curve.

Interestingly, both those Grade 1 victories involved front-running efforts: Affordale Fury, his highest-rated horse on 166, secured his maiden top-flight victory in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown, when the likes of I Am Maximus and Galopin Des Champs were his nearest challengers, Then it was Sixmilebridge’s turn, plundering the Scilly Isles Chase at Sandown and earning a rating of 150. After 169 foals in 2023, it is no surprise that there are 19 Affinisea stores on offer at Fairyhouse.

Affordable Fury (by Affinisea), wins the Grade 1 Savills Chase at Leopardstown from I Am Maximus and Galopin Des Champs

German Derby winner, SEA THE MOON is a Grade 1-winning producer via Allmankind, who galloped to top spot in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown as a four-year-old in December 2020. Four more Grade 2 triumphs followed within the year with his Old Roan Chase triumph bringing him to a mark 164. That has been his last victory, however.

Tritonic was another consistent performer and Teddy Blue finished last season placed at Grade 2 level. In France, Nothing To Sea showed lots of early promise and won a Listed hurdle at Compiegne last April, but hasn’t raced since. Sea The Moon, who stands at Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, boasts a 48% winners-to-runners strike rate, at a wins-to-runs clip of 14%.

At the sales, Minella Academy made £370,000 at Goffs UK Coral Gold Cup Sale in November after winning one of Ireland’s early academy hurdles by eight lengths at Cork three weeks earlier. He probably still has a bright future, despite a rather lack-lustre display in the Triumph on his next outing for Willie Mullins.

CLOTH OF STARS stands at Aliette Forien’s Haras de Montaigu, in France’s Orne region. He too has produced a Grade 1 winner in four-year-old Metronomique who secured the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure over 2m6f on heavy ground in Auteuil last month by 14 lengths for Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm. That was his sixth win from seven races, the blip being due to a fall, and his aggregate margin of victory is 67 lengths – that’s an average of more than 11 lengths.

Bill Durkan’s Laafi was just beaten a neck in a Grade 3 handicap at Haydock after losing another valuable handicap at Aintree in the stewards’ room due to a whip indiscretion. Coming from the flat, he is a very different model to Metronomique and is at his best on a sounder surface. Cloth Of Stars has only had 18 individual runners over jumps, only 15 over hurdles. Six of those have won.

CRYSTAL OCEAN was never out of the first three in his 17 career runs and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner now resides in the same county as Harzand, at Coolmore’s Beeches Stud in Lismore.

Two horses from his first crop of point-to-point runners look to have real promise: Cristal D’Estruval and Crystal Island fetched connections £400,000 and £205,000 respectively after prevailing through the flags, and are both two from two over hurdles for Harry Derham and Nicky Henderson respectively.

Highland Crystal is a Listed winner, unbeaten from three runs prior to a decent effort when a close seventh in the Triumph Hurdle, while Even Tho, who fell at the last when going to win her point in Dromahane, won a small race a Limerick before landing a Grade 3 bumper by 16 lengths at the Punchestown Festival.

Last year, Crystal Ocean had stores that sold for €200,000, €175,000 and €165,000. With 37 for sale at Tatts next week, fireworks can be expected.

STORM THE STARS could have Storm Heart pursuing some significant premier handicaps on the level during the summer, but the latter is also a very promising hurdler who won the Grade 3 Red Mills Trial Hurdle at Gowran Park in February and is rated 147 from a high of 151 after that. He has been placed at Grade 2 level. Closutton stablemate, Funiculi Funicula is now rated 149 over fences after winning his last two, the most recent a Listed novice handicap at the Punchestown Festival. Six out of the 11 of Storm the Stars’ progeny that have run over jumps have won and that 55% hit rate increases to two-thirds over hurdles.

Funiculi Funicula (by Storm The Stars), is now rated 149 over fences, after winning a Listed novice handicap at the Punchestown Festival

As a triple Gold Cup and quadruple Goodwood Cup winner, STRADIVARIUS seems a sure-fire provider of NH champions, but Bjorn Nielsen is adamant that he will be given every chance to make it as a flat producer and the mares he has been keeping company with since his retirement from the track have matched that ambition. With his first runners due for Joseph O’Brien, William Haggas et al this term, it’s a case of watch this space as to whether he will ever be targeted towards the jumping sector. 

Surely some of his progeny will end up there anyway, but whether Stradivarius goes on to contribute to his sire’s reputation as a source of NH sires or not, it’s clear that Sea The Stars has already had a significant impact on jumps racing and that this is only going to increase.