Sea the Stars

NEWMARKET, UK--That's a wrap for the yearlings of 2022, with the late-season curtain-up for a fortnight of sales of all ages at Park Paddocks netting 4,501,500gns from the exchange of 130 fledgling racehorses. Figures dipped a little from last year's slightly larger catalogue, but there was still plenty of money about for the 'right' horse, with a number of those towards the top of the list having missed an earlier engagement at Tattersalls for a variety of minor reasons. The average of 34,627gns was pretty much on a par with...

The Aga Khan Studs' stallions Sea The Stars (Ire), Siyouni (Fr) and Zarak (Fr) are all set to stand for increased fees in 2023. Heading a powerful roster, Sea The Stars, sire of the brilliant Baaeed (GB) and Stradivarius (Ire), will cover at an all-time high of €180,000 at Gilltown Stud. Currently third in the sires' table behind Dubawi (Ire) and Frankel (GB), Sea The Stars is the sire of 19 Group 1 winners among his 101 stakes winners. His rising number of sons at stud include the aforementioned duo,...

Eleven-times Group 1 winner Verry Elleegant (NZ) (Zed {NZ}) is likely to visit leading European sire Sea The Stars (Ire) in her first year at stud in 2023, Racing.com reports. Co-owner Brae Sokolski told the website that the decision was not final, but that the ownership was leaning in the direction of breeding to the sire that has been represented by the world's top-rated turf horse Baaeed (GB) and the legendary stayer Stradivarius (Ire). "She'll be served to northern hemisphere time and while no final decision has been made on...

14.25 Saint-Cloud, Mdn, €27,000, unraced 2yo, f, 7 1/2fT Christoph Berglar's homebred NIGHT OASIS (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is kin to two black-type performers out of a stakes-placed half-sister to MG1SW sire Novellist (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}) and this term's G1 Irish Oaks heroine Magical Lagoon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Waldemar Hickst's representative is confronted by nine in this debutantes' contest, including Haras d'Etreham's 200,000gns Tattersalls December foal Sea Salinas (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who is a Francis Graffard-conditioned half-sister to G1 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Sortilege (Ire) (Tiger Hill {Ire});...

Shadwell will announce details relating to Baaeed (GB)'s stud career later this week, according to the owner-breeder's racing manager Angus Gold, who also revealed that Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire) will be joining their roster ahead of the next year's breeding season. However, Baaeed's brother Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), whose career hung in the balance after he suffered an injury when winning the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom, returned to training with Owen Burrows on Monday and is expected to make a return to the track in 2023....

DEAUVILLE, France--Everything changes, especially the format of bloodstock sales, and Arqana's five-day Octoberfest is no exception. This year Part I has been extended to two days from one, and after the first session in Deauville on Monday, it is probably also fair to say that the more things change the more they stay the same. Sea The Stars (Ire) was the sire of the top lot. Ecurie des Monceaux, that juggernaut of a French sales consignment, was the session's leading vendor, and Stroud Coleman Bloodstock the leading buyer, but Haras...

William Haggas is looking to the future after Baaeed's shock swansong defeat in the Qipco Champion S. at Ascot on Saturday by revealing the six-time Group 1-winning superstar's younger brother is set to make his debut soon.  Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {GB}) lost his unbeaten record on his 11th and likely final start on Champions Day when finishing fourth, beaten a little under two lengths, behind Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}). That was despite being sent off as a prohibitively short-priced favourite at odds of 1-4. Haggas was...

NEWMARKET, UK--Sea The Stars (Ire) provided a showstopper on day one and repeated that feat during the second session of Book 2 when Longview Stud's half-sister to the Group 3 winner Feliciana De Vega (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (lot 1048) was bought by Roger Varian for 700,000gns. For an unnamed owner already in Varian's Newmarket stable, the chestnut is a son of the dual listed winner Along Came Casey (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}), who has already been represented by three previous six-figure offspring, including the four-time winner Abnaa (Ire) (Dark...

NEWMARKET, UK--Dubawi (Ire) and Frankel (GB) may occupy the top two spots in the sires' table, but not far behind them, and with Baaeed (GB) still to be unleashed on Champions Day, is Sea The Stars (Ire), who had his own moment in the spotlight at Tattersalls as the sire of the 800,000gns top lot. A Book 2 record was set in 2019 when the million-guinea barrier was breached for the first time, but Monday's leading light, who was sold less than an hour after the start of trade, was...

Less than an hour into Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, a Sea The Stars (Ire) colt out of the winning Shamardal mare Kitcarina (Fr) fetched a bid of 800,000gns from Anthony Stroud of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. He will be trained in Newmarket by John and Thady Gosden. The sole horse in the sale consigned by Fiona Marner's Windmill Farm, lot 570 is the mare's first foal and was bred by the Kitcarina Partnership and Sunderland Holdings Ltd. His dam, the Haras de Saint Pair-Bred Kitcarina, is a daughter...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin NEWMARKET, UK--And breathe. Book 1 is over, galloping out the door after a three-day bonanza of record returns, the highest-grossing single day of horse trade in Europe, and the world's most expensive yearling of 2022. What this all means for next week and Books 2, 3 and 4 of the October Yearling Sale is anyone's guess, but a safe bet would be that all those potential buyers so frustrated at playing bridesmaid during Book 1 still have rolls of grubby fifty-pound notes burning holes...

Sir Mark Prescott will happily recount the story of the time he bashed his former pupil assistant William Haggas over the head with a frying pan for oversleeping. He will also reflect with pleasure on the great pride he felt when Haggas won the Derby in 1996 with Shaamit (Ire). When it comes to being a benevolent dictator, the Prescott pendulum has, by his own admission, swung more from dictatorship towards benevolence in recent years and, more than anyone involved in British racing, the master of Heath House cares deeply...