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Sea The Stars has run his last race. John Oxx has announced that the colt will not run again and will now be retired.
Wise decision.
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I say well done to the owner and to John Oxx and his team. I think the horse was a very well campaigned champion with nothing more to prove. Mind you I would still have loved to see him as a four year old.
Sad that we wont see him again but he has nothing left to prove and the right decision. I know if he was my horse I would make the same decision. He is worth too much money
Hope he stands at the National Stud. A truly exceptional colt and hopefully he can be as good a stallion.
Right decision not to go to the Breeders Cup, his coat had gone in the Arc. Coat being the first to go before a horse loses form / over the top.
Totally understand the financial decision to retire, might have done the same had I owned him.
Would like to see him race on at four. Was a beautiful looking animal, with a big frame. The type that could improve again with another year on his back.Thanks to all connections for a wonderful year / three year old campaign.
Expect Mick Kinane’s retirement any day soon.
Value Is EverythingThe correct decision imo. The horse of a lifetime who bequeaths us life lasting memories. The Eclipse his best book performance, the Arc his finest hour. Congratulations to connections who have handled the horse, his campaign and associated publicity in exemplary fashion.
Thanks for the memories.
It has been a privilige to watch him run this season – now a life at stud – lucky horse!!!
Happy retirement and thanks for the memories.
Being there at Longchamp seeing him win the Arc is up there in the top 2 greatest sporting memories I have, the other one being seeing Manchester United win the Champion’s League in Moscow with my late uncle.
I was planning to go over to Santa Anita had he ran, but I would have suffered for the time off work, so I’m kind of glad!
Well done John Oxx and Mick Kinane, who gave him a fantastic ride each and every time.
The season was well executed after everything fell into place. Right decision at the right time. John Oxx is a credit to the sport, and Kinane rode him superbly well.
I’m so relieved to hear that, but so sad never to have seen him run..I reckon if he stood at The National Stud people would flock to Ireland in droves to see him and it would do to the Irish economy what Abba did to Sweden..I would certainly make another journey there to see him. I hope the horses that he beat this year do well at the Breeders Cup which will prove beyond doubt what an incredible horse he is. Thoughts of poor George Washington had been hanging over me since The Arc, but a little bit of me wanted to see him run there and soar even further into legend. I shall make a point of writing to John Oxx and thanking him for what he has achieved with this horse, because I’m not sure that it has actually sunk in with him yet. He said in an article I read that he was going to re read up on all the great horses of the past this winter. The pressure training a horse of this calibre must be immense [think David Elsworth, Tom Dreaper and Paul Nicholls] and what will always stay in my mind was the way that John Oxx all but broke down with emotion during his interview with the BBC before the Arc.I wish we could bottle the greatness of this horse and the thrill of seeing him run and give it to all the people who have no interest in racing, but, then again, we are the lucky ones and, boy have we been lucky this year!
I disagree completely with the general concensus.
I think it’s selfish, if unintentionally so, that some people are happy to see his retirement and have no desire or wish to see him on the racecourse again. Pity the young newcomer so taken up by the Arc perhaps, especially the BBC’s over the top orgasmic reaction to his win, what are you to say to this young person who will not see his new found hero on the course again? All very well for those of us who are used to this sort of early retirement, it happens virtually every year and next year’s 3 year olds will now have it a lot easier and be largely untested by yet another weak older generation.
We all start somewhere and usually, I would guess, it’s just one horse that captures young imaginations that gets us all on this road which consumes so much of our time. A youngster just getting involved could be forgiven for thinking – "what a dud sport this is".
I see this as what’s fundamentally wrong with flat racing that a top 3 year old becomes unraceable because of it’s value for bloodstock. Fair enough if the horse shows signs of temperament and might not withstand another year in training, but we did not get this indication with Sea The Stars.
What I would like to see is the whole calendar turned on it’s head so that the emphasis for talent is very much on the 4 year old season. It does an injustice to Sea The Stars and any remotely like him I think, because they are prohibited from showing their true potential, i.e. giving weight and a beating to the following seasons classic generation, consequently I refuse absolutely to join in the plaudits to his connections or to aid and abet this status quo by elevating a 3 year old to such levels.
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Perhaps the right decision not to run him at the Breeders’ Cup (though I’d certainly have loved to have seen him there), but can the same be said of not letting him return as a four-year-old?
It’s a selfish choice, driven by money (which is less appreciable than the Aga Khan’s crusade to purify the thoroughbred, which cost us the chance to see Zarkava outside of France this year), and not something I can confess to agree with.
Extremely disappointing.
Utterly predictable, but I can’t see why it should be a "relief" to anyone that the horse has been retired…
He is massive odds-against to be as good a stallion as he was a racehorse and the question has to remain – how can you realistically expect the sport to attract a new generation of fans when its heros are packed off to stud after effectively just a few months of action?
What I would like to see is the whole calendar turned on it’s head so that the emphasis for talent is very much on the 4 year old season
Agree with this…
It needs thought and there are probably those within the Bloodstock industry who can tell us why is can’t happen, but surely there must be a way to discourage horses retiring after their 3yo careers to become stallions/broodmares?
Just imagine this season’s 10f division if we had just this extra year of continuity – Henrythenavigator, New Approach, Ravens Pass, Zarkava, Rip Van Winkle, Sea The Stars, Mastercraftsman – literally mouth-watering stuff even for the most hardened cynic.
You certainly wouldn’t need martketing committees and management consultants to sell the sport if you had this pool of talent competing against each other.
And then think of the prospects at Stud for the horses that top
these
divisions?
Just imagine this season’s 10f division if we had just this extra year of continuity – Henrythenavigator, New Approach, Ravens Pass, Zarkava, Rip Van Winkle, Sea The Stars, Mastercraftsman – literally mouth-watering stuff even for the most hardened cynic.
Certainly a compulsive argument from a sporting angle, but looking at it from the bloodstock point of view I can see why the breeders wont risk these horses any more than they have to. So few of them ever go on to be champion stallions over a generation, the risk of losing a potential one is just too great. Its a bit like premium passengers at an airline where the small minority at the front of the aircraft bring in the majority of the revenue.
Best horse I’ve seen in 22 years in the game (I started the year after Dancing Brave, but don’t feel any need to decide which of the two was better). The way he ambled up to the lead in the Guineas (when still green) and the Derby was casually impressive; Sandown showed his courage, in a race whose form worked out better than any I can remember; when he slipped through that tiny gap at York and then cantered all over Fame and Glory at Leopardstown you knew we were in the presence of a monster; and the Arc was the icing on the cake, which showed that no challenge was too great for him.
All along he’s been impeccably campaigned (imagine what would have happened if Gosden or Godolphin trained him), and the decision not to run again this season is sensible. It would have been great to see him again next year and it’s a shame for racing that he isn’t, but even though the owner doesn’t need the money the decision was predictable given the ludicrous greed of the super-rich. At least he goes out on a high, untarnished by defeat or injury. Thanks to trainer and jockey for some of the best moments I’ve had in the sport – this year’s Arc, where I was on Cavalryman at very big prices, was the first race I’ve ever watched where I wanted my bet to lose (well, didn’t mind losing anyway). Long live the king.
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