SEA THE STARS (Cape Cross) turns 19 in January, and his fee will go to €250,000 for the 2025 covering season. This is almost three times that which he commanded when he went to stud in 2010, and the trajectory of his pricing has only been in one direction, upwards. This is unusual, even for a stallion of his quality and level of success.

Alongside the announcement that he will stand for an all-time high fee, a statement from the Aga Khan Studs said: “Sea The Stars has enjoyed another fruitful season and is currently the leading sire of three-year-olds in Europe in 2024, a crop that includes Group 1 winner Sosie and Group 2 winner and Arc runner-up Aventure. He has achieved his highest ever number of annual stakes winners this year, with 28 to date, including group-winning two-year-old The Lion In Winter, currently favourite for next year’s 2000 Guineas, and his yearlings have sold for an average of €363,000.”

There was no need to say any more, though they could well have done so. His 12 crops of racing age, which includes a single stakes-winning juvenile in 2024, averages out at over 11 blacktype winners per crop, while his first 11 crops have averaged two Group 1 winners in each. Sea The Stars has been a model of consistency as a sire, he has a number of sons at stud, while his daughters have given us the likes of Group and Grade 1 winners Unquestionable, Big Rock, Onesto, Ah Husn and Eldar Eldarov, the latter pair by Dubawi (Dubai Millenium).

His best son at stud, with runners, is Lanwades’ Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby winner Sea The Moon, and it is forever regrettable that he was unable to run in the Arc, for which he was favourite after his classic success. The manner of his victory in Hamburg is forever indelibly ingrained in the minds of anyone who has ever seen it.

Consistent sire

Sea The Moon is from the first crop sired by Sea The Stars, and has been at stud since 2015. He has been a very solid sire, and this year he too has sired a single stakes-winning juvenile, among 35 blacktype winner in all. His average number of stakes winners per crop of three-year-olds or older is almost six, from smaller crops than his sire, and on Sunday he sired his fifth Group 1 winner when Assistent went one better than he did in 2023, and won the Grosser Preis von Bayern.

Buyers at the Arqana Arc Sale in early October had an opportunity to purchase the Hank Grewe-trained and Eckhard Sauren-owned Assistent, a five-year-old full horse, but he was unsold at €590,000 – so we can hazard a guess at what the reserve was. He had not raced for a few months, and his achievements this year had not matched those of 2023, though his level of performance was not far off his best.

Assistent was a listed winner on his seasonal debut this year, and later was third to another son of Sea The Moon, fellow German Derby winner Fantastic Moon, in a Group 2. He won two Group 2 races at four, and was runner-up to Junko in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern. If it seemed that his connections’ expectations at the Arc Sale were somewhat ambitious, events since then would appear to justify their call not to sell.

Tight finish

Less than three weeks after the sale, Assistent made his first start after a break of more than 100 days, and won a Group 3 at Baden-Baden. This set him up for a tilt at the final Group 1 races run in Europe this year, which he duly won in a tight finish. He is a first Group 1 winner for his owner, while his trainer announced after the race that it was his last, and he will head to stud now.

Assistent is one of three winners from five runners for the unraced Anna Kalla, a daughter of Kallisto (Sternkoenig). The others are a pair who each won twice, Aturana (Tai Chi) at three in 2024, and Anna Jolie (Jukebox Jury), also as a three-year-old. Just three or so weeks ago, the unraced four-year-old Anna Protecta (Protectionist) went through the ring at Baden-Baden and sold for €3,500 to European Bloodstock. Now she is a half-sister to a Group 1 winner!

Bred by Gestur Röttgen, Assistent is out of a full-sister to Anna Katharina (Kallisto), and that mare was a Group 3 winner at three in Germany. She is proving to be a useful broodmare, and is dam of the stakes winner Ankunft (New Approach), and the 2024 winning three-year-old Anspruch (New Bay) who was placed in the Group 2 Union-Rennen. Anna Katharina is a half-sister to stakes winner Attica (Tai Chi) and Group 3 winer Adrian (Reliable Man). Their dam was the unraced Anna Desta (Desert Style).

Nine winners

Assistent is the first Group 1 winner in four generations of his family, but it is one filled with many stakes winners, up to and including Group 2 level. In fact, they all descend from Assistent’s third dam, Group 3 winner Anna Thea (Turfkonig). She largely travelled to Ireland and Britain to be covered, producing nine winners from 12 foals. Group 2 Union-Rennen winner and Group 2 Mehl- Mülhens Rennen (German 2000 Guineas) runner-up Aspectus (Spectrum) was her star runner.

Anna Thea is the grandam of nine stakes and group winners, one of which was Alaskakonigen (Sternkoenig). At stud, the last-named is dam of a couple of blacktype winners, the best of which is the 2022 Group 2 Derby Italiano and Group 1-placed Ardakan (Reliable Man).

Two undefeated colts lined up for the Group 1 Deutsches Derby at Hamburg in 2014, one the winner of the Group 2 Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas), and the other a Group 2 and 3 scorer at 10 and 11 furlongs.

Although the former, Lucky Lion, would go on to beat Noble Mission in a 10-furlong Group 1 next time out, few of that year’s three-year-olds could have troubled Sea The Moon. He took the lead in the early stages and was never headed, eased down to win by 11 lengths. The Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden in early September was to be his warm-up for Paris. He was clear with less than a quarter of a mile to go, but Ivanhowe moved past and pulled away to win by three lengths.

Praise indeed

Ivanhowe would go on to add three more Group 1 wins, two of them over 10 furlongs in Australia, while a carpal joint injury, sustained while racing, ended Sea The Moon’s career. Timeform rated him 127 – praise indeed.

At stud, Sea The Moon’s fee had always remained the same, or made a move upwards, until now, but next season he takes his first cut, down €10,000 to €22,500. Given the levels of success he has enjoyed, it is incredible to think he is available for such value.

In addition to Assistent and Fantastic Moon, who is slotted to begin his stud career in the spring, Sea The Moon’s long list of high-class performers is headed by the classic-placed, wide-margin Group 1 Coronation Stakes heroine Alpine Star, the Group 1 Caulfield Cup winner Durston, and last year’s Group 1 Preis dee Diana (German Oaks) heroine Muskoka.

Apart from his success as a sire, he is also responsible for a Royal Ascot winning two-year-old from one of his daughters. Sea The Moon is a son of a full-sister to three German Group 1 classic stars, and is sure to prove popular also as a broodmare sire, with a number of his fillies and mares selling well last year. Alpine Star was one of the results of 2023, bought by M.V. Magnier at Goffs for €6 million. He has a half-sister to Group 1 winner Tribalist for sale at Goffs, while his Group 2-winning daughter Terms Of Endearment is in the Sceptre Session at Tattersalls.