Happy Friday! Born on March 8, 1962, a colt was born. There was no reason to expect anything special from this colt as his pedigree was so-so and he could not be considered any more likely to distinguish himself than a thousand other new arrivals in France that Spring. But the 50th anniversary of that apparently mundane even deserves to be marked and celebrated, for that colt was Sea-Bird, who would achieve enduring renown as most peoples idea of the outstanding thoroughbred of the 20th century. His supreme talents in his exceptional performances as a three-year-old and we are still waiting to see them matched by the 21st century horse. Sea-Bird’s sire was Dan Cupid, a son of Native Dancer who had shown promise as a juvenile with three victories and placings in the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes, and at three added two more wins in minor events, efforts which signified far less than the standout performance of his career, when a neck second to champion Herbager in the Prix du Jockey-Club. His record of five wins from 15 starts could only be considered disappointing for one capable of that form at Classic level. Perhaps it had been a fluke. Time would tell Dan Cupid was anything but an outstanding sire. Sicalade, who had problems giving birth to all three of her foals, would be put down as a barren seven-year-old, supposedly more bother than she was worth. But somehow their unpropitious alliance resulted in a paragon of the breed. Precocious, moi? Non! Ternynck sent Sea-Bird to his distant cousin Etienne Pollet, who had trained Dan Cupid and had two other products of the horse in his Chantilly yard in 1964. The one who would distinguish himself was nothing like so precocious as his sire, who had made a winning debut over five furlongs in June. It was September before the big, leggy, backward Sea-Bird had his first outing, over seven furlongs at Chantilly. Palpably green, he missed the break, but there was promise in the way he made up the ground to win by a neck. Little more than two weeks later he won again by the same margin in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte, his immediate victim being Blabla, who would win the Prix de Diane a year later. Sea-Bird was already clearly smart – smart enough to warrant an entry in the Grand Criterium – but Pollet and rider Pat Glennon both reckoned he was not yet up to matching their precocious star Grey Dawn, who had impressive wins in the Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre on his CV. Grey Dawn duly won, earning the title of champion juvenile as a consequence, though many felt that Sea-Bird, two lengths behind him at the finish, would have finished a lot closer if Maurice Larraun had launched his challenge earlier. We still did not have to believe that Sea-Bird was the reincarnation of Pegasus. Maybe he had just beaten a sub-standard field. Then Meadow Court won the Irish Derby – and after that the King George. Those results and Sea-Bird’s win over older rivals in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud provided hard evidence he was truly exceptional. If there were still any non-believers, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe converted them. Sea-Bird thrived noticeably during his three-month break from competition; on Arc day he was a bigger, stronger, more impressive physical specimen than the one we had seen at Epsom and, though he sweated up a bit, he looked the picture of health. But there was nothing about the field to suggest he was about to be presented with the Arc on a plate. The best Europe could muster were on hand, including an undefeated compatriot in Reliance, who had won the Prix du Jockey-Club, the Grand Prix de Paris and the Prix-Royal Oak. America’s top three-year-old Tom Rolfe, the Preakness winner, was also among Sea-Bird’s 19 rivals. There had never been an Arc with comparable depth of quality. How Sea-Bird dealt with such apparently formidable opposition had to be seen to be believed. When he and Reliance drew out from the pack, a duel between them all the way to the line seemed on the cards. That is not what we got. As Reliance demonstrated his marked superiority over 18 of his rivals, he was himself being left for dead by the horse who on that day was the champion of champions. Sea-Bird’s margin over Reliance was six lengths and there were five more back to third-placed Diatome. There was nothing more that Sea-Bird could have achieved, but in the course of the six weeks that followed compliments were paid to him by his victims. Diatome won the Washington DC International, fifth-placed Anilin won the Preis von Europa by four lengths, and Demi Deuil, far back in seventh at Longchamp, came out on top by seven lengths in the Premio Roma. He is considered by many to be the greatest post-war European flat racehorse. His 145 Timeform rating was the highest in history, until today, when Frankels win in the Queen Anne earned him a phenomenal 147. He is most famous for his victories in two of Europes most prestigious races: the Epsom Derby and the Prix de lArc de Triomphe. Though he doesn’t have the unbeaten record sometimes used as a crude marker for horses in the upper echelons of greatness, Sea Bird’s three-year-old season marks him out as one of the finest ever to take to the track. He won seven of his eight races, the sole defeat coming at Longchamp in 1964. Despite having run only once in the United Kingdom, Sea-Bird was voted British Horse of the Year by the Racegoers club in 1965, taking 228 of the 240 votes In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Sea-Bird the greatest racehorse of the 20th century, one pound ahead of Secretariat and two pounds ahead of Ribot and Brigadier Gerard. Prior to the running of his final race, the American breeder John W. Galbreath paid owner Jean Ternynck a reported $1,350,000 to lease Sea-Bird for five years stud duty at his Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:24:34 +0000
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