How great was Sea Bird?
analysis
- #1Best ever European flat race horse
- #2Best ever middle distance flat racehorse
- Best ever racehorse overall
- Better than Frankel
- Better than Sea the Stars
- Best ever Arc winner
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Earlier this year on March 15th ,we commemorated the 50th death anniversary of the legendary Sea Bird11,who expired in 1973.I am sorry to have missed posting in memory of this star,who arrived like a comet to racing.Hard to envisage his likes ever to be reborn on the racetrack.We should unfailingly;y recollect moments of this equine superstar.
Many experts have ranked Sea Bird as the best flat racehorse ever or best ever middle distance racehorse.They have strong credibility of facts to back that assessment.Pertinent that even most British experts like John Randall,or commentators like Peter o’Sullevan,John Oaksey and Julian Wilson ,place Sea Bird at the very top.Still Peter Scott of the Daily Telegraph rated Mill Reef ahead as well as Anne Holand.
The manner Sea Bird swooped over his opponents in the 1965 Prix de l’Arc De Triomphe.’had to be literally seen to be believed.The colt defined equine supremacy as never before in the manner he annexed his rivals.Sea Bird scaled heights in athleticism not transcended in racing history as though ushering a new era or epoch.Horses of the stature of French Derby winner Reliance, Washington International winner Diatome,Russian Derby winner Alinin,Irish Derby and King George winner Meadow Court and American Derby winner Tom Rolfe were devoured or annihilated ,making them look like starter’s hacks.The majestic manner in which the colt strode to victory reminded one of knights making leeway for the saluting of an emperor in a victory parade.He would have won by double the manner had he not veered across the track.The margin of six lengths in the victory,stands as a record till today.
Earlier that year in June,Sea Bird cruised with the effortlessness of a bird ,to win the Epsom Derby with ridiculous ease.The colt coasted along to catch and leave colts I Say and Meadow Court ,as though they were telegraph poles.Possibly even Shergar did not surpass Sea Bird when winning by a staggering margin of 10 lengths ,16 years later,in terms of pure conviction.
Was Sea Bird the best European flat racehorse of all or middle distance colt?Mathematically we may never derive an accurate answer,with improvement in breeding technology,tracks,training methods etc.In my view,at his best ,over a middle-distance Sea Bird was the supreme champion.Arguably over a mile,Frankel won by marginally more authority than Sea Bird did over a mile and a half.Sea Bird also did not prove the versatility of Nijinsky over different distances,or Mill Reef or Ribot,in different types of going or the durability of a colt like Sea the Stars,in a whole season.Unlike Ribot and Brigadier Gerard,Sea Bird did norun as a four year old.
With racehorses getting faster over generations possibly Dancing Brave and after Sea the Stars would have beaten Sea Bird in the Arc.However both would not scale the zones Sea Bird did,in terms of superiority over their generation.
With a gun on my head I would still overall place Sea Bird ahead of the great stars like Mill Reef,Nijinsky,Dancing Brave and Sea the Stars,but still below Ribot who won 2 Arcs and a King George when travelling was debilitating.Ribot was outstanding at both 3 and 4 years like no one else.
Comparison with Frankel is perhaps unfair.
Sad Sea Bird could hardly do proper justice at stud,passing away so early.Nevertheless ,he sired the 1974 Arc winner Allez France.Had he lived another 10 years more,he may have become of the most successful sires ever.
He was the best flat racehorse not called Frankel I have seen on film.
Obviously, there’s no footage of the greats of the 18th and 19th centuries (or the first half of the 20th), but his Arc performance was simply stunning and the field he beat as strong as any ever assembled for that race.
There is an episode of The Persuaders where Moore and Curtis are watching a race from the stands ( likely Pinewood Studios),then you see the finish of a race and it’s unmistakably Sea Bird quickening through to win his Arc in technicolor. And during the picture montage as the theme music plays at the start of each episode, you see a partial clip of what I’m certain is Sir Ivor’s 2,000 Guineas.
There are no bad Derby winners, but some are a lot better than others and Sea Bird was the greatest of them all.
He won at Epsom with his head in his chest and his Arc victory was sensational.
And all at a time when 1m4f was still the pre-eminent race distance (how many of Saturday’s entrants are even bred to get the trip?)
I was alive when he raced, but far too young to appreciate him.
Great, great horse.
Second only to Frankel as the all-time greatest ever, IMO, discounting dirt, that is, where Secretariat would loom large.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Because of his 8 race career, his body of work isn’t enough to me to mean that he can be the Best Ever European Flat Horse, Best Ever Racehorse Overall or Best Ever Middle Distance Flat Racehorse (although he has a strong argument for the last one).
To me I don’t think he is a better horse than Frankel and whilst I think he was a better horse than Sea The Stars, I believe he is clearly the Best Ever Arc winner in arguably what is probably one of (if not the) best Arc field ever assembled (it comprised of the winners of that season’s English/Irish/French/American/Russian Derbies, the French Oaks winner, the King George winner, the Grand Prix de Paris winner, the French St Leger winner and even the US Champion 3 yr old Tom Rolfe who won the Preakness Stakes along with also being placed in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes).
SB treated them all with complete and utter contempted and even had time to drift left right across the course and yet still won by 6L with the minimum of fuss.
No point trying to compare eras due to so many factors but sea bird,ribot,nijinsky,el gran senor and Frankel would be my top 5. Best horse I saw live was alleged which my first race meeting I attended when he beat the Derby runner up by ten lengths in the voltigeur before winning two arcs. Amazing what he achieved as he wasn’t the biggest.
That was an eventful week Mickeyjip – wish I’d been there that day to see Alleged but was present the day before when Artaius messed up the script. Both The Minstrel and Blushing Groom had been retired to allow them to hastily get over to Kentucky to beat the import ban on the horizon due to an outbreak of equine herpes, hence the stage was set for the Eclipse winner to take over the mantel of the best colt in Europe. He failed but 24 hours later Alleged came to the rescue.
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