Champion mare Vodka foaled a colt by Sea The Stars at Gilltown Stud in Ireland on Monday.  The six-year-old mare will be bred back to the all-conquering world champion at the Co. Kildare nursery later this month.

Vodka (Tanino Gimlet) was retired in March last year after winning 10 of her 26 starts.  She was named Japan’s Champion 2YO Filly in 2006 and the following year became the first filly in 64 years to win the Japan Derby.  

Retaining her brilliant form at four, she won the G1 Tenno Sho and Yasuda Kinen before finishing third in the Japan Cup en route to becoming crowned Horse of the Year.

In 2009, she won the G1 Victoria Mile and a second Yasuda Kinen before a career-defining victory in the Japan Cup that cemented a second Horse of the Year award.

Sea The Stars is also the sire of a filly from ace broodmare Bordighera born last week at Round Hill Stud in Co. Limerick.  The new arrival is a half-sister to G1 winners George Washington and Grandera.  

Bordighera (Alysheba) has produced six winners in total including Old Hundred (Tiger Hill) who was a clear-cut winner at Doncaster on Saturday for owner-breeder Lael Stables.

Her latest foal is bred on the same cross Melbourne Cup runner-up Purple Moon who is by Sea The Stars’ half-brother Galileo out of mare by Alysheba.

In Kentucky, the latest Sea The Stars foal to arrive is a filly from Irish G2 performer Love To Dance (Sadler’s Wells).  The mare is owned by Jonathan Clay of Alpha Delta Stables and she foaled down at Lane’s End Farm.

Clay bought Love To Dance for $1.05 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Sale last November.  She is a half sister to the G1 winners Dylan Thomas and Queen’s Logic.  The latter is the dam of 2010 English Champion Filly Lady of the Desert.

Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) covered a book of 120 mares in his first season at the Aga Khan’s Irish base for a fee of 85,000 euros.