Sea The Stars, the best racehorse for at least 20 years, is likely to eclipse the weekly earning power of Cristiano Ronaldo during the next breeding season after his owners decided this week to retire the three-year-old colt to stud.
No stud fee has yet been set for Sea The Stars, who won six top-class races during an unbeaten season in 2009 and became the first horse in history to win the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
But this week William Hill opened a book on the eventual fee, with a sum between €90 000 (almost R1-million) and €110 000 (almost R1,2-million) the favourite at 6-4.
That suggests Sea The Stars could earn about €700 000 (about R7,5-million) a week for his owners during the breeding season in 2010, which runs from February 15 to July 15. In the first year of his six-year deal at Real Madrid, by contrast, Ronaldo is paid a basic salary of €237 000 (about R2,5-million) a week.
Despite the high fee to enable Sea The Stars to cover a mare, there will be no shortage of breeders willing to pay the price. In addition to his brilliance on the track, the colt had the physical build and unflappable attitude of a great champion, too, which they will hope will now pass to new generations of racehorses.
John Oxx, the trainer of Sea The Stars, said that the decision to retire him to stud had been taken after much discussion with Christopher Tsui, his 27-year-old owner.
”It has been decided that Sea The Stars will not take part in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on November 7,” Oxx said. ”He’s been in intensive training for seven months, with only a three-week break after the Eclipse Stakes at the beginning of July. We feel it is unfair to keep him going any further given his unprecedented record of achievement in the past six months.”
Oxx said Sea The Stars’s speed was his greatest attribute. ”His success was put down to a combination of everything, but the main thing is his speed. He has tremendous cruising speed. He can just travel off any pace totally at ease and then he can quicken up off it. Then there is his temperament, and it is courage and temperament that bring the good horses to a different level.” —