Maybe Sea The Stars being retired was due to the suspicion that he wouldnt train on?

Yep, that run in the Arc had "wouldn't train on as a 4yo" written all over it....

His off spring seem to go backwards, all other connections of top horses seem happy to keep them going ie Treve, Frankel, but not the mighty Sea the Stars. And they called Frankel the cotton wool kid

Nothing to do either with the fact the the world's bloodstock powerhouses fought tooth and nail to secure him for stud and he was fully booked at €85K a pop. Remember too that until Frankel came along, STS was in many people's eyes equine perfection.

And how does someone know that a horse will train on

Just a trait I have noticed in his kids and I will never understand why you would deprive the world of such a racehorse, unless you had some doubts that the horse could come close to his achievements the following year. This is just something I had noticed and he was a great horse for one season.

looks like the op may have done his conkers on sts every time it ran ...
all he's got left now is to slag off the offspring.  desperate stuff

Do the maths. He saw over 100 mares first season and OK I grant some were owned by his shareholders, but a stallion prospect such as he is an unbelievably lucrative revenue seam. Why risk him racing at four?

^stream

galileo has a similar percentage regards 4yo's (the max age to date of STS progeny) of course from a much bigger sample

STS progeny 20% at 3, 16% at 2, 15% at 4 (only 66 runs)

galileo 20% at 2, 18% at 3,14% at 4

in top class races STS only had 6 attempts so far at 4

a bit early for statements like this imo

2000 guineas, derby, eclipse, juddmonte, Irish Champion stks, and the Arc in the same season as a 3yo, will NEVER BE DONE AGAIN

never flashy and looked in trouble a few occasions but you just knew would always find an answer, however the race was run, whatever the conditions.

The ultimate cotton wool kid, one season wonder, that wouldn't have trained on.

Breeders will soon start to see the trends.

Sea The Stars progeny are flattening out after 3 and with the world evolving horses will be trained until 5 and 6, what use will a flash in the pan be!

Dog of a horse, scraped home in the guineas, won the Derby because the others didn't stay, and got a golden highway up the rail in the Arc, so what if he made up 10 L in a furlong.

johnny the owner of sea the stars hardly needed the money, multi millionaire anyway.

I think if a horse retires at 3 owners are concerned about getting beat, and lowering its stud value.

Horse racing Legends are made at 4 imo, when they prove they can do it all over again, beating the next crop of 3 year olds too.

He also swerved the breeders cup.

Hallings progeny usually progress, think I'll stick with him.

Pure economics, nothing more nothing less, been an extremely long time since racing was a game or sport, big business and the bottom line, will always dictate what happens

Would have been a great 4-y-o. But he was already an all-time great.

Fully booked this year at €125,000 a pop.

when stats go bad


based on a handful of runners...walofs

Sea The Skies 4yo going backwards

Another Sea the Stars going backwards Ripples Effect 1800 Curragh.

There starting to stack up now!

it has only run as a 4yo what a clown

Everytime a progeny of STS gets beat Layboy will be bumping this thread,Wonderful

Anyone know when Layboy will post that this was all a wind-up.   It wasn't of course, but he will soone be tempted to try

The only clowns are the STS die hards who keep sending these regressive dogs off so short.

License to print money, your lose!

You really are serious then  Still time will tell.

Blackbarn, how are you? I bumped the twiggy wiggy thread, i dont think you saw. What do you think of her now? trained on or not?

Hello rm,  Didn't see it. Which fred (title?) did you bump?, Ascot was clearly disappointing and nothing seems to have come out as an excuse.  I would regard third in the Guineas (and didn't stay?) as pretty solid evidence that she had trained on. You'll no doubt have a different view. Lets see.

I'm all for keeping the top horses in training at 4/5/6 (isn't everyone?) but the suspicion that something mightn't train on as a 4yo is ludicrous - does that mean connections of greats like Dancing Brave, El Gran Senor, Shergar, Troy, Nashwan etc. all had similar concerns?

I'm struggling to remember a top 3yo colt that failed to do the business as a 4yo....is there something obvious I'm overlooking?

It's just GREED that prevents us seeing more of them and thankfully that ugly 80's trend is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

Isn't the "didn't train on" line more appropriate for the previous season's 2YOs?