Darley stallion Cape Cross sired his second classic winner when Sea The Stars won the G1 English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday. Champion filly Ouija Board had been his first when she completed the English and Irish Oaks double.
A son of Green Desert, Cape Cross stands at Darley’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland at a fee of €35,000 euros.
He got the Guineas winner from the recently deceased Urban Sea who is the dam of 8 stakes winners to date. Four of those were successful at G1 level – Galileo, Black Sam Bellamy, My Typhoon and now Sea The Stars – while a further two, Melikah and All Too Beautiful, were placed in top-level company.
Urban Sea died aged 20 after foaling a colt by Invincible Spirit at the Irish National Stud in March 2008.
She has left an important legacy to the breed, with Derby hero Galileo winning his first sire’s championship last year. Sea The Stars is now 5-2 favourite to emulate his half-brother in the Epsom Classic.
Urban Sea, a Miswaki half-sister to King’s Best, won the Arc de Triomphe and was also successful in the Prix d’Harcourt (G2), Prix Exbury (G3) and Prix Gontaut Biron (G3).