SEA The Stars (Cape Cross) is having another fine season, with Group 1 winning brothers Baaeed and Hukum leading a list of excellent performers for the Gilltown flagbearer.

His group-winning daughters this year include Emily Upjohn, the Group 1 Oaks runner-up, Sea La Rosa who was also Group 2-placed, and the Paddy Twomey-trained, Robert Moran-owned filly Rosscarbery who has been a revelation since moving to her new handler.

A maiden still at the end of her second season, which saw her tackle group company a couple of times, Rosscarbery is now winner of five of her six starts at four, and her only defeat saw her pass the post in third place in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes, only to weigh in light and be disqualified. There was compensation, of a kind, on Thursday at Leopardstown when she returned to winning ways, adding the Group 3 Stanerra Stakes to her earlier victory in the Munster Oaks, also a Group 3.

Deauville Legend

The latest win came on the same day that Sea The Stars’ three-year-old son Deauville Legend ascended to group status, landing the Group 3 Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket, his second win and on just his fifth start. He is a full-brother to the aforementioned Sea La Rosa, and these siblings both look as though they will add further glory to their pedigree.

Back to Rosscarbery. This Gestut Wittekindshof-bred was sold at Tattersalls for 130,000gns, and while she has yet to win back her purchase price, her own value has now increased substantially. When she goes to stud her offspring will be able to boast that their first four dams are all stakes winners.

Rosscarbery is out of the Italian listed winner Rose Rized (Authorized), the only stakes winner out of the Group 1 Henkel Preis der Diana-German Oaks heroine Rosenreihe (Catcher In The Rye), though that mare’s son Rosenpurpur (Pour Moi) was placed in the Group 1 German Derby, and another son, Ruling (Camelot), was stakes-placed last year in Ireland. Finally, Rosscarbery’s third dam Rosengeste (Be My Guest) won a couple of listed races in Germany.

Deauville Legend has a slight German connection – his dam Soho Rose (Hernando) gained her winning blacktype there in a listed race at Dresden, and she was stakes placed in France. Responsible now for four winners, including her pair of 2022 Group 3 winners, she is also dam of the Group 3-placed Dean Street Doll (Oasis Dream).

Interesting

This is an interesting family, with two branches descending from Deauville Legend’s unraced third dam Thornbeam (Beldale Flutter) excelling, but in different codes. Thornbeam’s Belgian stakes-winning daughter Cure The Blues (Phardante) bred a pair of French listed hurdle winners, and at least three of her daughters have produced blacktype National Hunt winners, including Cheltenham Grade 3 Coral Cup winner Diamond King (King’s Theatre) and Grade 2 hurdle and chase winner Stolen Silver (Lord Du Sud).

Three daughters of Thornbeam’s winning offspring Russian Rose (Soviet Lad) were stakes winners, including Deauville Legend’s dam Soho Rose. The best of the trio was Soho Rose’s full-sister Hanami (Hernando), successful in the Group 2 (now Group 1) Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh. The third stakes winner from Russian Rose, Dubai Rose (Dubai Destination), bred the dual Group 2 Prix de Royallieu winner, and Group 1 Prix Vermeille third, The Juliet Rose (Monsun).

A final mention of Sea The Stars this week. Keep an eye out for a two-year-old called Desert Hero as the season progresses. Already touted as a Derby hopeful for 2023, he is owned and was bred by Queen Elizabeth, and he was raised under the watchful eye of the Royal Studs’ manager, Irishman David Somers. The son of Sea The Stars is the first foal of the unraced Desert Breeze (Dubawi), and she is an own-sister to the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner and Group 1-placed Dartmouth (Dubawi).