Sea The Stars Eclipses rivals to notch up hat-trick and match Nashwan

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 19:29

SEA The Stars sealed his superstar status as he emulated the great Nashwan with another stunning performance in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown. Dick Hern's colt was the last Derby winner to bag Eclipse glory back in 1989 and after matching that horse's achievements in winning the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby, Sea The Stars made it a hat-trick in style.

Sent off the 4-7 favourite for the Group One heat, Mick Kinane was happy to settle way off a furious early gallop set by Lang Shining and Set Sail. The John Oxx-trained colt was always travelling beautifully and Jimmy Fortune, deputising for the suspended Johnny Murtagh, tracked the son of Cape Cross on Rip Van Winkle with Ryan Moore content to sit last of the ten runners on Conduit.

The race began in earnest turning into the straight with Conduit launching his bid down the outside, although he struggled to get on terms with Sea The Stars and Rip Van Winkle.

The two younger horses pulled four and a half lengths clear of last year's St Leger winner but it was Sea The Stars who came out on top, as he has done on the two previous occasions he has met the Aidan O'Brien-trained runner.

Oxx said: "This is what keeps you working. For 19 days out of 20, when you say what are you wasting your time for training racehorses when you can do something easier, these are the moments that keep you going.

"We'll have to have a think about where he goes next. We just go from race to race and we said after the Irish Derby we'd sit down and have a think about the rest of the year, but obviously it is after this race now. The Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown would be a major objective for him and we have to figure out what we are going to do in the meantime. There's the King George in three weeks and there is the International at York three weeks after that.

"He comes through his races well and the horse will have a big say where he goes as we'll see how he comes out of this."

Kinane added: "He is so quick out of the stalls with his pace and it was almost as if I hit the front too soon today, but it was hard for me to stop him.

"When the second horse came at me, he just picked up.

"You don't get many like him, he has so much early pace it is unbelievable."