Last Sunday at Newbury marked a sad day in the history of horse racing. In the space of 10 seconds two horses, Marching Song and Fenix Two, crashed fatally to the ground. Alarm bells immediately went ringing. Was this some kind of betting coup? Was it a malicious attack? Was it a freak coincidence? None of these permutations were proved correct however, as when the grooms went to move the horses body the surprising answer became clear. These horses had died of electrocution.
An electric shock I hear you say? Sure I’ve got them millions of times before! A bit of a fright and then your grand again, but this wasn’t any old electric shock, sadly. Racehorses wear aluminum horse shoes. These shoes conducted the electricity coming from a wire buried beneath the ground to a fatal degree. Finger pointing inevitably followed. A finger cannot be pointed however. This wasn’t a careless loss of life, it was an accidental loss of life. Nobody could care more about the welfare of racehorses than the racecourse themselves and nobody could have legislated that a loose wire underground could have such a devastating effect. Newbury’s very existence comes from horses running safely at their racetrack. Nothing in fact hurts a racecourse like Newbury more then seeing the death of a horse at its track. They would much rather have a great career ended by retiring a horse and having them enjoy their retirement in a lovely lush-filled meadow. This was quite simply a freak accident.
A sad day at Newbury
It was unfortunate timing for racing as the shadow of Cheltenham looms ever larger, racing is getting more and more coverage in the mainstream media. In a way though the accident only went to highlight how much racing cares about it’s horses. Nicky Henderson speaking on the loss of his horse instantly made you feel his compassion for his horse on Channel 4. Racing gets a bad press from animal welfare groups, saying that racing is cruel sport, but this is uneducated and naive perspective. Nobody could care more about horses then the people in racing themselves. The outpouring of grief towards Marching Song and Fenix Two this week proves this. They live and breathe everything to do with these magnificent creatures and while the death of these two animals in such tragic circumstances is unfortunate, maybe, just maybe, it can leave a legacy to the general public that racing is truly a sport that cares.
The racing world was greeted with some good news this week, however, with the birth of a bay colt foal. A foals birth, nothing remarkable there you may think? Well this wasn’t any ordinary foal. This was the offspring of Sea the Stars and Zarkava. This colt was priced up remarkably in the womb for the Epsom Derby at odds of 100/1 and on a safe birth those odds were slashed into 66/1. To put this into perspective in Europe there are 25,000 foals born every year so his real odds of victory should be at least 25,000/1. So what make these parents so special to give this foal such exalted status already? Well it helps that they were the World Champion racehorses of 2008 and 2009.
Sea The Stars was the horse of a lifetime. A brother to the champion sire Galileo, a son of Urban Sea (also a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner) he was bred to be a champion and boy did he deliver. Sea The Stars in his 3 year old season won 6 Group 1’s in 6 months. In total, he won 8 of his 9 career races culminating in a mesmeric victory in the Prix De l’Arc de Triopmhe in Longchamp, a race Zarkava won 12 months previous. He retired to Giltown Stud to stand at a fee of 85,000 euro in 2010. He has been a money making machine since arriving at stud. In his first year alone he covered 140 mares earning a whopping 11.9 million euro and he is expected to cover a similar book of mares this year. Not bad work if you can get it, eh?
Zarkava wasn’t half bad either. Unbeaten, she beat all comers in 2008, finishing with a tearful farewell in Prix de l’Arc De Triomphe where she beat the best of the best once more. Retired officially the best in the world it looked like no horse could ever match her brilliance. Then in 2009, like buses, along came Sea The Stars. Owned by the Aga Khan owner of Giltown Stud (where Sea The Stars stands), Zarkava was bred to Dalakhani in her first season at stud but she was always going to be a perfect match for Sea The Stars when they both finished their careers. As a result last March the much anticipated mating took place. The Aga Khan no doubt bearing in mind the old horse breeding saying “breed the best to the best and hope for the best”.
Sea the Stars gallops to victory
So this little bay colt has quite a bit of expectation riding on his young shoulders. I suppose it’s like being Usain Bolts child, people are going to be a tad disappointed if you can’t run just a tiny bit! So is the 100/1 the road out of recession? No, the chances of this horse being in the same league as his parents is remote in the extreme. However, would it surprise me if this horse did in fact turn out to be the next equine superstar? With Sea The Stars and Zarkava as his parents, I wouldn’t go betting against it!
Jack Cantillon
