Here you go:
We Need Our Heroes
The decision by owner Christopher Tsui to retire his champion three-year-old Sea The Stars after his crushing victory in the Prix de’L Arc D’Triomphe has been met with general understanding on the part of a most forgiving European horse racing community. They understand that it’s money that drives the game and Sea The Stars, rated the best in the world and possibly the best ever, is now worth his weight in gold as a sire.
However, there are others who feel let down, pickpockted by the lure of filthy lucre, of a champion who had not yet fulfilled his career on the race course and whose future feats may well have earned him the label of undisputed champion of the past 100 years. Now they will never know and be forever left wondering as to just how good Sea The Stars may or may not have been. The colt’s early retirement has robbed the racing public not only of a massive draw card but has also undermined one of the pillars on which the sport is built.
Thoroughbreds are bred to race and by cherry-picking the best out of the racing system before they are even fully tested detracts from a sport that over centuries has built a reputation on its heroes. In recent years - and in Europe especially – flat racing has suffered from not having an enduring hero of uncanny brilliance racing past their three-year-old season.
In contrast to See The Stars, the classy stayer Yeats made up for what he lacked in brilliance by sheer determination and is idolised by his legion of fans. Here was a warrior who travelled to the antipodes and the fact that he did not win the Melbourne Cup was not enough to detracted from his popularity - in fact it added lustre to his steely reputation.
Yet had Yeats - retired at the age of eight - been sharp enough to win a Guineas or a Derby, there is no doubt he would have been off to the emerald paddocks of Coolmore in the blink of an eye. But here was a horse that you could go to war with, not a bright star gone before many even knew that he existed, as damning media survey showed after the Arc. Sea The Stars attracted a disappointingly low television viewership on the day, less than a snooker tournament on at the same time and, even more damming; many of those canvassed had never even heard the name, Sea The Stars.
The racing public have been brainwashed into accepting as a given that any three-year-old with a degree of ability will be retired to stud at the end of his sophomore season. This is a legacy of the Coolmore start-up era where the quartet of Messrs Sangster, O’Brien, Magnier and O’Byrne hatched a cunning scheme which succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and set the pattern which sees the racing world deprived of their potentially greatest champions before they even learn how to race - lost to the track with breeding a lame excuse for lining the pockets.
At the outset let me say I’m no fan of National Hunt racing. Flogging exhausted horses to jump obstacles after having already galloped a couple of miles is hardly fair in my book and a number of the jump jockeys employ the “enforcer” with seeming impunity. A few Aussie stipes in England and jump racing would be closed down in a week with the entire riding community suspended, penniless or both.
But as one poster on a racing website wrote, “It’s a sad state of affairs but that's flat racing for you, every time a good three-year-old comes along they retire it. As good as See The Stars was I think the three-year-olds this year were pretty poor, that's why National Hunt racing is the best because they are around longer.”
Revisiting the pages of that grand book, a Decade Of Champions, and reading with the current issue in mind, it struck me that two of the great North American champions of that golden decade raced into their four-year-old season, namely Triple Crown champions Seattle Slew and Alleged while Secretariat, arguably the best of them all, finished up his career at three but only after having won 16 races. It was an era when US racing’s popularity peaked and with the support of a host of tremendously talented and tough fillies and geldings, it gives credence to the current view that by retiring top horses early, the big industry players are slowly cutting their own throats, and in the process, us small guys throats as well. It has started off a small bleed, but the blade is being driven deeper.
Young Tsui, who incidentally is not short of a bob or two, insists the decision was not taken lightly. He told the Guardian newspaper: "There are, of course, many factors to be considered when retiring a horse from racing.
"It is also a big responsibility, as Sea The Stars has become so dear to the public. I have of course read opinions of race fans on the internet and I would like to say thank you for the overwhelming support from most people.
"There are, of course, some who feel his career was too short and want to see him race more. Some comments were quite nasty, actually, but most were understandable.
"As a racing fan, I didn't want to see him retire either, as each race has brought me joy and excitement beyond anything I could ever dream of.
"I am undoubtedly his biggest fan. However, as his owner there are things to consider beyond just the joys of watching him race.
"He has proven himself to be a great champion. Whether he is the greatest will be open to debate forever.
"Racing to us is only the first part of his career. Breeding is just as important, maybe even more."
The key phrase here is, “Whether he is the greatest will be open to debate forever.”
For a bloke who was born with a silver spoon jammed firmly in his mouth, it just doesn’t wash. If he was a battler who had fluked a good ‘un, it may be different.
To my mind, Sea The Stars will be remembered as a decent horse in a modest year.
He won a couple of four-horse contests, having apparently scared away most of the opposition, but that says little for those trainers looking to protect reputations rather than proving who was the best.
So the one tangible thing keeping horseracing relatively healthy at present is the spread of the international betting footprint. But as things are currently headed, even that may not be enough to sustain a sport that has held global prominence for hundreds of years. Like all sporting codes, horse racing needs heroes, preferable equine, to sustain profile and public interest. Without those heroes a dwindling band of supporters will not be enough to sustain a legacy that is centuries old.
As English racing legend John McCririck. summed up: "Racing has lost its greatest possible attraction in Sea The Stars and we talk about racing for change and bringing more people into the family of racing, well to do that you need these superstars.
"Everybody loves horses like Kauto Star and Denman (National Hunt) and of course they are fantastic, but they haven't got that appeal that Sea The Stars would have had worldwide.
"It is sad news and the dream has ended, but I think when Christopher Tsui looks back in the years to come with his children and his grandchildren, he'll look back and say 'I just wish'.
"I know it's easy for us to talk but I think he'll look back and say 'I just wish, maybe just maybe'."
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