Thursday’s meeting at Meydan gave us three new stakes winners with one of them the latest in a cross which is beginning to appear with increasing regularity.
Star Safari is SW74 for Sea The Stars lowering Ghaiyyath’s course record in the Gr3 Dubai Millennium Stakes (2000m) and the ninth stakes winner for his sire out mares carrying Monsun in their pedigree.
Bred by Gestüt Brümmerhof, Star Safari was purchased by Godolphin for €200,000 at the 2017 BBAG September Yearling Sale, the five-year-old now the winner of four of his seven starts.
He is a three-quarter brother to the Gr3 Prix Prince d’Orange at ParisLongchamp winner Soudania (Sea The Stars) and French Listed winner Sahelian (Sea The Stars).
The dam Intimhir (Muhtathir) won at Saint-Cloud and Longchamp and a half-sister to Premio Lydia Tesio at Rome winner Sortilege (Tiger Hill), Soudania (Sea The Stars) and Sahelian (Sea The Stars).
The granddam Sahel (Monsun) a winner at Deauville and a sister to Gr1 Deutsches Derby winner Samum, Gr1 Preis der Diana winner Salve Regina, Gr1 Deutsches Derby winner Schiaparelli and Sanwa, the dam of Gr1 Deutsches Derby winner and sire Sea The Moon (Sea The Stars).
To date, Sea The Stars has 55 named foals out of mares carrying Monsun for 11 stakes performers at a strike-rate of 20%.
There are Gr1 winners Sea The Moon and Shraaoh, Gr2 winners Raheen House, Fanny Logan and Night Music as well as Al Aasy (Gr3), Soudania (Gr3), Star Safari and Sea Of Faith.
In addition, Sea The Stars’ sire Cape Cross got three-time Gr1 winner Guignol out of a mare by Monsun and the Gr3 Prix de Conde placed Capo Maximo the same way.
Numerically the most successful combination for Sea The Stars is that of mares by, or carrying, Sadler’s Wells with 22 stakes winners.
This includes Gr1 winners Stradivarius, Taghrooda, Star Catcher, Fifty Stars, Miss Yoda and Zelzal and is also seen in Star Safari and Sea The Moon with their third-dam Sacarina by the Prix du Jockey-Club winner Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells).
Sea The Moon himself already has German Gr3 winner Noble Moon with a duplication of Sadler’s Wells.
Of course, Sea The Stars is a half-brother to Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and the champion sire has the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist out of a Monsun mare while his son Frankel has the Yushun Himba winner Soul Stirring out of the champion Stacelita and Teofilo has Australian Gr1 winning filly Montefilia out of a mare by Shirocco (Monsun).
And Monsun himself got the French Gr2 winner Manatee out of a mare by Galileo and his Gr1 winning son Maxios has stakes winners Euclidia and Skymax out of Galileo mares.
That Sea The Stars and Monsun should combine to such effect should come as a surprise.
Both were elite racehorses, excelling at middle-distances. Monsun (Konigsstuhl) winning eight Group races in all, including two Gr1s as a three-year-old and one Gr1 as a four-year-old. At five he won twice at Gr2 level.
He has been one of the best stallions in German history, the sire of over 20 Group or Grade 1 winners in different countries.
One of three good German stallions bred on the Konigsstuhl/Surumu cross along with the brothers Lavirco and Laveron, Monsun retired to Baron von Ullman’s Gestut Schlenderhahn in 1996 and got the Deutsches Derby Samum and Subiaco in his first-crop.
From then on his stature grew and grew and, despite never covering big books of mares, established himself as one of the better ‘classic’ stallions in Europe with a 15 % strike-rate of stakes winners to foals, putting him well above the benchmark 10% accepted level for superior stallions.
Interestingly both Sea The Stars and Monsun have influential broodmares duplicated in their pedigree.
Monsun is 4×4 to the brother and sister Kaiserkrone (the third-dam of Konigsstuhl) and Kaiseradler and Sea The Stars has Allegretta as his granddam, Allegretta 4×5 to Aster (Oleander), the seventh dam of Sea The Stars.
Aster won seven races including the Deutscher Stutenpreis. At stud, she became the dam of Schlenderhan homebred Asterblute, considered one of Germany’s greatest fillies, winner of Schwarzgold-Rennen, Preis der Diana, and Deutsches Derby, and second in the Deutsches St, Leger and the sixth dam of Sea The Stars.
In a racing world more and more pre-occupied with speed, it is refreshing to see two classic stallions combining to such good effect.