TDN: Euro Value Sires

As an 11-length German Derby winner out of a Monsun (Ger) sister to three other German Classic winners, Sea The Moon mustered a Timeform rating of 127 in just five starts (derailed by injury after his sole defeat). But even that kind of merit tends to count against sires who won't win you a Brocklesby, so his sale returns represent a remarkable measure of the way he stamped some knockout yearlings. With 10 of them raising i100,000 or more, he achieved some unexpected dividends for those who had recognised the generic appeal of German blood--arguably the best value in Europe for anyone actually trying to breed a racehorse, as opposed to a show pony at the sales--and the specific lustre of this graduate from the first crop of a sire soaring beyond the reach of most breeders. Sea The Stars himself, of course, traces to another outstanding German family: that of Urban Sea's dam Allegretta (GB) (Lombard {Ger}).

Sea The Moon's arrival in Newmarket had given maginative breeders in the European mainstream access to a sire who might otherwise have been confined to the quality-but-notquantity shared by so many underrated German sires. And the market showed that it can sometimes see past the witless commercial stampedes, stretching to a 525,000gns colt at Tattersalls Book 1.

He has managed to maintain three-figure books to follow his first one through and surely represents value pegged at the same fee. After all, foals conceived this spring will reach the yearling sales with two crops having been able to reach full bloom as 3- and 4-year-olds. So it's all looking pretty
sustainable, even as it stands: a new stallion with every right to sire a Classic horse, standing for 15 grand, and paying his way at the sales. Nowadays that's not so much rare as nearly unique.

(08/02/2018)