Blast From The Past: Eclipse Stakes

Until Frankel came along two years later, Sea The Stars briefly set the standard as the best three-year-old colt this century and when he added the Eclipse at Sandown in 2009 to the 2000 Guineas and Derby he had won earlier in the year he completed a treble last achieved by Nashwan twenty years earlier.

It was a rare feat on Sea The Stars’ part to win the first two colts’ classics, but judged purely on bare form the Derby actually took the least winning among his six Group 1 victories that season. The Eclipse, though, was a different matter, and his win at Sandown was the first indication that Sea The Stars belonged in the same league as the very best colts of recent times.

Sea The Stars only lined up at Sandown after being pulled out of the previous week’s Irish Derby after heavy rain at the Curragh. He was sent off the 4/7 favourite, with his chief rivals in a field of ten being the top-class four-year-old Conduit, winner of the previous season’s St Leger and Breeders’ Cup Turf, and fellow three-year-old Rip Van Winkle who had finished fourth to Sea The Stars at both Newmarket and Epsom. Both that pair were supplied with pacemakers which resulted in an unrelenting gallop, and in turn, allowed Sea The Stars to record the season’s best time performance.

Sea The Stars produced an impressive response to quicken two lengths clear entering the penultimate furlong but idled a little in front, briefly allowing Rip Van Winkle almost alongside, but then pulled out a bit more in the closing stages to win by a length. The runner-up also recorded a top-class performance, with a four and a half length gap back to Conduit in third and then another five to the fourth horse, Cima de Triomphe. 

None of Sea The Stars’ six Group 1 wins in 2009 were recorded by spectacular margins – that wasn’t his style – and judging how much he had in hand in some of his races was a matter of opinion, rather than fact. ‘He only does enough but, sure, enough is enough if he wins’ was how his trainer John Oxx put it. 

What can be said with more certainty was that the Eclipse form was made to look even better than we’d originally assessed it at the time. Rip Van Winkle confirmed himself a top-class three-year-old by going on to win the Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes back at a mile on his next two starts while Conduit was stepped back up in trip, winning the King George later in July and a second Breeders’ Cup Turf at the end of the season. Two of the Eclipse also-rans also went on to Group 1 success later in the year, Jukebox Jury in Germany and Twice Over taking the Champion Stakes.

As for Sea The Stars, he completed a perfect campaign with further successes in the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, while at stud his offspring include recent dual Derby winner Harzand.