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‘The connections of Sea the Stars have indicated the Irish Champion S. and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe would be the next two starts for their colt. When a horse wins the first two legs of the Triple Crown in his or her respective country, is there a moral obligation or an obligation to fans to attempt to win the Triple Crown, or is skipping out due to the distance of the race acceptable?’
This is answerable via Facebook and I’m not a huge fan of that particular site so I’ve decided to give my views here on this still rather public forum, except for the fact that almost nobody reads it. I hope some of you might post your own views, which I am sure will differ from mine, but here’s my response:
Yes and no. There's certainly no moral obligation: an owner pays for a horse to be in training and is perfectly entitled to make whatever decision they see fit for that horse. I don’t know the the Tsui family personally but they seem to me to be very sporting owners who would understand the extraordinary strength of feeling behind this horse, their horse. John Oxx has said since straight after his Derby victory that he felt Sea The Stars wouldn't get the St Leger trip. He also queried his stamina before Epsom but there's no doubting he got every yard of the Derby.
Oxx is a trainer I hold in the very highest regard...(can you feel a but coming?)...BUT from the point of view of Sea The Stars' future career as a stallion I believe the Tsuis are in a no-lose situation. He has already made history by winning the 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse and International Stakes. He's proved beyond doubt that he has speed, stamina and class, never mind the fact that he is an exceptionally good-looking and regally-bred colt.
If he wins the St Leger, it will not detract from his stallion career: he's also a G1-winning Classic miler with an enviable turn of foot. What it will do, however, is give racing fans a much longed-for Triple Crown hero. If he doesn't win the St Leger, then it is only likely to be because he doesn't stay the extra two furlongs and that, too, will not harm his stallion credentials.
Sea The Stars has already captured the public imagination in Europe and is very much the horse of the moment. With his abundant talent, unflappable temperament and Messrs Oxx and Kinane in his corner, how can he go wrong? The buzz surrounding the build-up to the Leger if he was participating would be extraordinary: ‘will he or won't he stay?’ will be the only question on the lips of racing fans and it would provide the marketing men (and women) with more 'narrative' than they know what to do with.
True fans of racing simply want to see him do what he was bred to do: race. His connections have not shunned the challenges of campaigning a top-class colt thus far and, admittedly, it would be wonderful to see him emulate his dam in winning the Arc. But there’s nothing I'd like more than to witness a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime (Nijinsky was in my lifetime but I was only one and not yet addicted) and this colt has a genuine chance of becoming the next one.
Compete him against the best at all reasonable distances and only then can we judge him against the true greats down the ages. It is my firm belief that Sea The Stars will not be found wanting. Winning the Triple Crown is still horseracing’s ultimate accolade.
5 comments:
It will indeed be a very sad day for racing if the St Leger takes place and a fit and sound Sea The Stars is not in the field. To have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown and then to decline to contest the third would be akin to a football team winning through to the Grand Final and then electing not to take part in it - unthinkable!
We had this when Sheikh Hamdam decided not to run Nashwan in the St Leger, and sadly it looks as if we're going to have it again. To me, it's a no-brainer: the prestige of winning the Triple Crown would kick any other prestige into a cocked hat. There is an Arc winner every year, there is an Irish Champion Stakes winner every year, there is a Breeders' Cup Classic winner every year - but there is only a Triple Crown winner every 50 years, so you don't need to be Einstein to work out which is a more special achievement. To have the chance to become a Triple Crown winner and thus be remembered with awe forever, whether that chance is an odds-on chance or an odds-against chance, is something offered only to a very, very select few, and to turn down that chance is madness. Sheer madness.
Furthermore, commercially, running in the St. Leger is a no-lose situation. If Sea The Stars were to win the Triple Crown, he would become the Horse of the Century, full stop: when setting his stud fee, his connections could just think of a number, any number, and double it, and he'd still be full. And if he were beaten in the St. Leger, he would be (perceived as being) beaten through lack of stamina - which paradoxically would probably increase his stud value.
It does appear that Sea The Stars' connections have serious doubts about whether their horse will be good enough to win the St. Leger, and thus are inclined not to run him. My view is that he would be good enough to win it - but whether or not he is good enough at 14.5 furlongs to win a Group One (we already know that he is more than good enough at 8, 10 and 12 furlongs), the decision to run him should be a no-brainer.
Have not posted for some time so having trouble premierising my thoughts.
A new triple crown winner would be fantastic. It would do more to get racing on the front pages than any other single event.Its not as though Sea the Stars is unbeaten so there's no fall out from losing.And he seems such a magnificently strong horse with a calm temperament so he'd probably stay the Leger distance.
I do get a bit fed up with so many horses being campaigned in ways to maximise their stud value rather than for the joy of seeing how capable and how versatile they are.I believe the German bloodstock industry has more rigid rules about future stallions but can't quite remember what.
So some on connections supplement the great horse for Doncaster!!
I have been struggling to work out why the prospect of a triple crown winner, exciting as it might be, just does not stir the blood for me and have decided that it is because the St Leger itself does not stir the blood for me. I would love to see Sea The Stars go for it, but I am not sure anyone is being completely honest who says they would rather he competed in it and got beaten than didn't line up. I personally think that would be awful.
Sure, the Leger is still a classic, but it is not a race which counts greatly any more. It is now just a consolation for horses not good enough to win the Derby. Whereas it used to be in the top half dozen races of consequence worldwide, it now cannot even make the top 20.
The whole premise of the classics was and still is to identify the best second season colts in order that they can be given the best shot at stud to improve the breed. That is why these races are still restricted to entires. But as long as the St Leger is a race of little significance for stud purpose (and of detriment commercially)it cannot and must not be regarded as a race which the best colts need necessarily run in. There are much more important races for Sea The Stars to run in.
And as for the Leger, it is not even a supreme staying test - the real test of stamina for the top horses was always the Ascot Gold Cup. If we really want to see a colt prove his real greatness over a variety of distances, why don't we ask him to do it at six furlongs and two miles?
The magic of racing is to dream and live the dream. Sometimes we actually live the dream through a horse we're associated with directly and sometimes we live the dream through another horse we've seen or admired. Sea The Stars falls into the latter category for me and of course the dream here is to win the Triple Crown and create "modern" history. John is correct when he states that whether the horse wins or loses, he wins anyway for all the reasons outlined.
I remember when Makybe Diva lined up for the third Melbourne Cup, a feat almost unthinkable in the modern day, particularly for a mare in a race like the Cup. 72 hours before the race, her trainer threatened to scratch if the track was too firm. They watered the track, the masses cheered. she lined up and duly won...why did we cheer ? We were living the dream.
If the connections of Sea The Stars believe that racing is truly about dreams, they'll run him. Perhaps, as I suspect, their dreams have already been realized through this horse already or via some other means or event.
Sea The Stars will win the St Leger if he runs. And if he does run and wins the Triple Crown, we will all have lived the dream.
Ah, come on Lone Voice. You've answered your own question - we would indeed like to see a horse prove his versatility over the full distance range. We would, of course, like to see him win at Royal Ascot as a two-year-old and the Gold Cup as a four-year-old, with the Classics in between. And it could happen. Don't forget that Mill Reef won the Coventry Stakes, and would have won the St Leger had he not had the misfortune to be born in the same year as another true great (Brigadier Gerard): had Brigadier Gerard not been present, Mill Reef would have won the 2,000 Guineas rather than finished second in it, and had he won the first two legs of the Triple Crown I think it's fair to assume that Paul Mellon would have run him in the third leg, and that he would have won it.
More recently, don't forget that Dr Devious and Generous both ran second in the Coventry before winning the following year's Derby (1991 and 1992 respectively - and that's not that long ago). And winning the Dewhurst (a Group One over seven furlongs) and the Derby is not considered at all strange, as done most recently by Sir Percy and New Approach.
Re the St Leger, it might pay to recall the old adage: "The 2,000 Guineas is won by the fittest horse, the Derby by the luckiest, but the St Leger by the best".
So for the ultimate challenge: the Coventry Stakes, the Triple Crown and the Ascot Gold Cup. It's not impossible. Hyperion won the New (now Norfolk) Stakes and the Dewhurst at two, the Derby and the St Leger at three (he didn't run in the 2,000 Guineas) and was third on unsuitably hard ground in the Ascot Gold Cup at four.
Bayardo won at Royal Ascot as a two-year-old and the Ascot Gold Cup as a four-year-old, with a St Leger triumph in between (he was beaten in the 2,000 Guineas through lack of fitness after an interrupted preparation and beaten in the Derby when he was nearly brought down by a horse falling in front of him).
If such feats are impossible nowadays (which I don't think that they are) that is more an indictment of the weakness of modern-day horses (although I concede that the increased competitiveness of racing has made them harder) than of any failings in the races themselves.
Those were the days - when the Derby winner was automatically aimed at first the St Leger and then the Gold Cup. Ah!!!
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