SEA The Stars hardly needs to be celebrated as the sire of the week, but that he is thanks to some great results on the racecourse and one in the sale ring. The magnificent son of Cape Cross (Green Desert) will officially turn 20 on January 1st next.

He has completed his sixteenth season at Gilltown Stud, his home since he transferred from John Oxx’s Currabeg Stables after a stellar career that saw him win eight races in succession after a debut that promised much.

Bred by the Tsui family and raced in the name of Christopher, Sea The Stars won all six starts he made at three, each a Group 1, comprising the 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse Stakes, Juddmonte International, Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

His stud career has been one of continuing excellence, and has seen his fee rise from €85,000 to €250,000 in an unbroken upward trajectory, reflecting the fact that he has enjoyed consistent support and popularity. A remarkable 23 of his 83 pattern winners have bagged at least one Group 1 triumph, and have been in the winners’ circle after 43 top-flight successes. If there is one thing missing from his exceptional CV at stud, it is a Grade 1 winner in the USA.

That omission will hopefully one day be filled, and daughters of Sea The Stars are excelling at stud; among their progeny is the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Unquestionable (Wootton Bassett). Wimbledon Hawkeye (Kameko), a son of Eva Maria (Sea The Stars) recently won the $3.5 million Nashville Derby and looks a likely type to go on to Grade 1 success in the USA if the Gredley family chooses that path.

How deserving would it be should Sea The Stars’ daughter Aventure go on to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the first Sunday in October. The four-year-old Wertheimer homebred, foaled in Ireland, has won or run second in all but one of her dozen starts, and on Sunday she gained a long overdue first Group 1 win in the Prix Vermeille. She was second to Bluestocking in the same race 12 months ago before again chasing that filly home in the Arc. This year she was runner-up in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Wholly appropriate

It would be wholly appropriate for Sea The Stars to sire a winner of the centrepiece of Arc weekend at ParisLongchamp; he has been knocking at the door a few times.

His ill-fated daughter Sea Of Class came agonisingly close to winning the race for the Tsui family when beaten a head by Enable in 2018, with Cloth Of Stars in third. A year earlier, Cloth Of Stars was himself second to Enable in the same race. Taghrooda, from the first crop of Sea The Stars, chased home Treve and Flintshire in 2014.

Last Friday, a daughter of Gilltown Stud’s Sea The Stars topped the BBAG Yearling Sale when selling to Godolphin for €750,000. Bought with a telephone bid from Anthony Stroud, the Gestüt Brümmerhof-bred is the first foal of the 2021 German champion three-year-old Novemba (Gleneagles), a runaway winner of their Group 2 1000 Guineas.

Friday also saw Raaheeb (Sea The Stars), a full-brother to Group 1 winners Baaeed and Hukum, readily dispose of his opposition in a maiden at Ascot, and is clearly held in the highest esteem by Shadwell.

On Saturday, the juvenile Command The Stars (Sea The Stars), bred under the name of the Tsui’s Sunderland Holding, won for the third time in five starts. The €130,000 Goffs foal travelled to Craon in France to win a listed race.

Then, on Sunday, Aventure crowned a great weekend with her maiden Group 1 win. Command The Stars’ victory in France meant that he became the 140th stakes winner for Sea The Stars, from 13 crops of racing age. He is his sire’s eleventh stakes winner of 2025.

Important trials

Sosie (Sea The Stars), fourth in last year’s Prix de l’Arc, ran in one of the most important trials for that race at the weekend, the Group 2 Prix Foy, and was half a length behind the Japanese winner Byzantine Dream. Earlier this season the Wertheimer’s four-year-old won both the Group 1 Prix Ganay and Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan. Sosie is a three-time winner at the highest level.

Another of the weekend’s feature races, the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, saw The Lion In Winter (Sea The Stars) finish third behind Sahlan and Rosallion in a blanket finish.

Eight of nine yearlings by Sea The Stars offered for sale this year have sold for a median of €460,000, and there will be a host of stars when his stock are offered in the coming weeks at Goffs and Tattersalls.

At the Co Kildare venue’s Book 1 Orby Sale you can find full-brothers to dual Group 1 winners Emily Upjohn (Lot 169) and Sea Of Class (173), a half-sister to Group 1 French classic winner Channel (234), the half-brother to Australian Group 1 winner Royal Patronage (371), and an own-sister to two listed winners, Al Aabir and Sea Scout (456).

No fewer than 35 sons and daughters of Sea The Stars are catalogued in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale, and they include siblings to Group/Grade 1 winners Loving Dream, Dreamloper, Sea La Rosa and Hypothetical, and a daughter of Airlie Stud’s Group 1 winner Skitter Scatter.