Our Hero. No Horse Could Beat Sea The Stars In L'Arc
We have our answer. No horse could beat Sea The Stars IRE (Cape Cross IRE) in the Qatar Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe--no matter how much trouble he gave his 50yo jockey Michael Kinane in wanting to take on any horse with the nerve to get by him.
Fresh, happy, ears pricked, powerful and loved; he just wanted to race.
Everywhere he went he was greeted with awe. When he entered the paddock before the race, the crowd burst into spontaneous applause--something none of us ever heard before.
Crowds travelled over from Ireland and England to join French fans in seeing the 'legend' no one could imagine losing. And no one wanted him to lose.
One could feel the will for him to "do it". Win, win for us--all of us who love flat racing and desperately want a hero.
Do what no other horse has done. Win six Group 1's in a year including two Classics, the Guineas and Derby, the Eclipse, Juddmonte International Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes and the Arc de Triomphe.
Hero he is. Win he did.
For once he was sweating before a race, jumped out of his stall, keenly charged ahead and took some serious restraining to settle farther back than the crowd could tolerate. One felt and smelled fear.
But not Kinane. He fought his horse for control, held him firmly, cleverly covered him, kept him off the rail leaving every escape route and waited for a gap at the right moment to unleash the gears and sprinter's speed.
Once he did, the race was over. STS scythed through the two fillies in the lead, Stacelita and Dar Re Mi, leaving the field behind by two lengths.
Magnificent Youmzain made his move when Sea The Stars did to cop second (for the third year in a row) and Godolphin's handsome 3yo Cavalryman nailed third, Conduit fourth and, YES, Dar Re Mi fifth in the money for £111,068. Fame And Glory took sixth and Stacelita seventh.
The crowd went wild. No one has seen anything like it in flat racing.
STS' trainer John Mortimer Oxx has said of being with him every day "He is just so perfect. Nothing looks like him. Nothing is like him."
Was he worried he could not get out and win so far behind? "No, not really. He has the gears and the speed to get out of anywhere."
STS won his sixth Group 1 since May, has never been beaten in two years of racing, gave his trainer his second Arc (Sinndar in 2000), gave his jockey his third Arc (Carroll House in 1989, Montjeu in 1999) and gave his young owner Christopher Tsui of Hong Kong his first.
He catapulted his Darley sire Cape Cross to an unmatchable position of 2009 top-earning sire with today's purse of £2,219,029 and he matched his outstanding late dam Urban Sea in winning the Arc (1993).
He assured himself Cartier Horse of the Year and Cartier Three-Year-Old of the Year.
He is compared to the greats: Ribot, Sea Bird, Mill Reef, Nijinsky and Dancing Brave.
Whilst Nijinsky won the English Triple Crown (Guineas, Derby and St Leger) in one year, no other horse has won the Guineas, Derby and Arc in one year until today.
And he can add another first. He could win the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Mick Kinane said, when he sat the two-year-old Sea The Stars, "I couldn't believe my luck."
Nor can we believe all our luck--the quintessential racehorse.
Racing International http://www.racingint.com
Posted by susan trevelyan-syke at 10/4/2009 5:22 PM 
Categories: Arc de Triomphe 2009
Tags: Arc de Triomphe 2009
Categories: Arc de Triomphe 2009
Tags: Arc de Triomphe 2009
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