The beautifully-bred Sosie (Sea The Stars) draws clear of his field to win the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris
When landing the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, Wertheimer’s former Prix du Jockey Club third-placed Sea The Stars colt Sosie became the seventh Group 1 winner amongst the descendants of the high-class matriarch Sacarina.
Bred by Bassam Freiha, the daughter of Old Vic was acquired by Graf Philipp von Stauffenberg on behalf of Bruno Faust’s Gestüt Karlshof where he was the stud manager at that time. Her sire had won the Irish and French Derby respectively and was a son of Sadler’s Wells from the same dam line as the seven times top-level winning German champion and leading sire Acatenango, himself the best son of Germany’s major sire influence Surumu.
Sacarina’s dam, Brave Lass, also had the Group placed Brave Owen and Lady Member to her credit and was by Ridan, a son of the Nasrullah horse Nantallah out of the influential Rough Shod, who is also the fourth dam of Sadler’s Wells. Thus Rough Shod features 6x3 in Sacarina’s pedigree.
Sacarina’s second dam is the German 1000 Guineas victrix and German Oaks placegetter Bravour, herself a Birkhahn half-sister to the dual Classic winning champion filly Brisanz, both bred by the shrewd pedigree expert Ferdinand Leisten.
The unraced Sacarina produced a total of twelve foals of which ten are winners. Eight of her foals were by Monsun, and this proved to be a most successful combination, topped by three Classic Group 1 winners. The German Champion Sire Monsun is the leading representative of the proven cross of the German Triple Crown winner and Champion Sire Königsstuhl on mares by the German Derby hero and leading sire Surumu. This combination has Birkahn appear 5x4 in the pedigree, plus Surumu being reconnected to that dam line which produced the above mentioned Acatenango.
Sacarina’s list of progeny is headed by the Group 1 German Derby and fellow Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden hero Samum, the sire of four Group 1 winners, including the German Derby hero Kamsin from the family of Königsstuhl. Samum’s full-brother, Schiaparelli, also annexed the Group 1 German Derby and scored another four times at the highest level, while the Monsun filly, Salve Regina – whose descendants include this year’s unbeaten Group 3 Zukunfts-Rennen heroine, Santagada – romped home in the Group 1 German Oaks and finished runner-up in the German Derby. Sacarina’s fourth and final Stakes winner is the Listed Derby Trial winning King’s Best colt Seventh Sky.
Sosie is out of the Listed placed Shamardal mare Sosia and is half sister to three other Stakes performers. In turn, Sosia is bred from Sacarina’s daughter Sahel (by Monsun) who is also dam of the then Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Sortilege – herself dam of the fast finishing Group 1 German Oaks runner-up Spanish Eyes – as well as being the ancestress of the Group scoring colts Straight and Sirjan, both sons of Zarak. Sahel had the Group 3 winner Soudania from a mating with Sosie’s sire Sea The Stars, as well as being the second dam of the fellow Group winning Sea The Stars entire Star Safari.
Sosie is closely related to the German Derby winner and Champion Sire, Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars)
Sacarina’s other Monsun daughter, Sanwa, had the 2014 runaway German Derby hero and Champion Sire Sea The Moon from a mating with Sea The Stars, the latter being a half-brother to Sadler’s Wells’ leading siring son Galileo. Urban Sea, the dam of Sea The Stars and Galileo, is a half-sister to the aforementioned Group 1 English 2000 Guineas hero King’s Best.
The seventh Group 1 winner tracing back to Sacarina is the Grosser Preis von Bayern victor Seismos, himself out of the winning Dashing Blade mare Sasuela, who produced the Group 1 German Oaks runner-up Soberania to a mating with Monsun. Soberania went on to be a Stakes producer in Japan.
The three German Derby winners Samum, Schiaparelli and Sea The Moon, plus the German Oaks heroine Salve Regina, Sortilege, Seismos and now Sosie qualify Sacarina to be defined as a blue hen by now. She is also one of six broodmares in German thoroughbred history to have produced two winners of the German Derby whilst, in addition, she is the second dam of a third winner of this premier Classic, a feat which was also achieved by Gestüt Ittlingen’s Sharpman mare Laurea as the dam of Lando and Lariche and the third dam of the 2019 winner Laccario.
Looking at Sosie as a stallion prospect, the portents are excellent: Samum has four Group 1 winners to his credit in spite of rather limited chances; Schiaparelli is a proven National Hunt sire and Sea The Moon was Champion Sire in Germany in 2023 with the German Derby winner and recent Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden hero Fantastic Moon, plus the German Oaks victrix Muskoka (from the family of Monsun), leading the way as two of his current four top level winners.
