Caulfield Examines German Derby Hero Sea the Moon

It would never have been right to dismiss the Deutsches Derby as a parochial affair, even in the days prior to 1993 when the race was confined to horses trained or reared in Germany. Those pre-1993 winners featured numerous colts who helped shape the modern German Thoroughbred, including the 1977 scorer Surumu, the 1979 Triple Crown winner Konigsstuhl and the 1985 hero Acatenango. 
    Of course opening the race to international competition hasn’t guaranteed that every edition of the Deutsches Derby is out of the ordinary. However, the 2012 race was definitely special. With a desperate late surge, Pastorius snatched a half-length victory over Novellist and Girolamo. All three principals went on to G1 success, with Pastorius notably taking the Prix Ganay and Novellist both the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the King George. 
In other words, the Deutsches Derby can represent top international form. So what do we make of Sea The Moon, the unbeaten colt who galloped his way to an 11-length triumph two days ago? The omens are good. Surumu, who trotted up by seven lengths back in 1977, went on to be Germany’s champion sire six times. Samum, a five-length winner in 2000, became champion sire with his first 3-year-olds and Shirocco, a four-length winner in 2004, later found international fame as a winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Coronation Cup. The only other wide-margin winner of recent years was Adlerflug, whose first crop contains Wunder, an unbeaten filly whose victory in the G3 Prix Chloe makes her a leading contender for Germany’s Oaks, the Preis der Diana. 
    Sea The Moon’s victory will focus even more attention on his sire Sea The Stars, a brilliant racehorse who is proving similarly impressive as a stallion. In addition to a Deutsches Derby winner, his first crop has produced an Oaks winner in Taghrooda and a Prix du Jockey-Club runner-up in Shamkiyr. Altogether this initial crop has produced five group winners, each with a different broodmare sire. 
    The broodmare sire of Sea The Moon is Monsun, whose status as arguably the most important German stallion of recent decades reflects the fact that he has made a considerable impact on the Deutsches Derby. Oddly enough it was in this German classic that this son of Triple Crown winner Konigsstuhl suffered one of his defeats: after leading with only a quarter of a mile left to race, Monsun was worn down in the closing stages by Lando, future winner of the Japan Cup. 
Monsun made ample amends for that Hamburg defeat, which was one of only two losses during an impressive eight-race 3-year-old campaign. He rounded off his sophomore year by galloping his Europa-Preis opponents into the ground in very testing conditions. 
    The official handicappers considered Monsun to be less than seven pound inferior to the year’s best British middle-distance 3-year-olds and he did even better at four. He ended 1994 officially rated only four pounds below Hernando and White Muzzle, the top older performers in the 11 furlong-plus category. He owed his high rating to a series of very smart performances over a mile and a half, including a second decisive victory in the G1 Europa-Preis. 
A brief 5-year-old campaign boosted Monsun’s total of group victories to eight, after which he retired to the Gestut Schlenderhan of his owner, Baron Georg von Ullman. In topping the German sires’ list on four occasions, Monsun went one better than his sire Konigsstuhl, whose top winners included the Deutsches Derby winners Lavirco and Pik Konig. 
Once again Monsun has gone one better than his sire, achieving a hat-trick of German Derby winners. One of those winners has gone on to sire a Deutsches Derby winner and now it seems to be the turn of Monsun’s broodmare daughters to extend the great stallion’s influence on the Hamburg classic. Sea The Moon is the third consecutive winner of the Derby with a dam by Monsun, her predecessors being Pastorius in 2012 and Lucky Speed last year. 
Significantly, Sea The Moon’s unraced dam Sanwa is a sister to two of Monsun’s Derby winners, namely Samum and Schiaparelli. 
    As a member of Monsun’s first crop, Samum was largely responsible for highlighting Monsun’s potential. Not only did he take the Derby by five lengths but he then won the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden to improve his record to six wins from as many starts. However, he lost his unbeaten record in the Arc and never won again, despite staying in training at four and five. In common with plenty of other German stallions, Samum hasn’t covered anything like the same numbers of mares as his British and Irish counterparts, to the extent that there are only 318 foals in his first nine crops. However, he too has sired a Deutsches Derby hero in Kamsin, the 2008 winner who was recently represented by his first stakes winner. 
    A look at Sea The Moon’s pedigree shows why the colt’s rider, Christophe Soumillon, was so confident about his mount’s stamina. Sea The Moon’s famous second dam, Sacarina, was sired by Old Vic, a formidable galloper who trounced the opposition in both the Prix du Jockey-Club and the Irish Derby. Unfortunately, Old Vic proved much less effective as a sire of flat performers, but his numerous good steeple-chasers included Comply Or Die and Don’t Push It, two winners of the Grand National over four and a half miles. 
Plenty of stamina also emerged in Schiaparelli, the other Derby-winning brother to Sea The Moon’s dam. Although Schiaparelli went on to victory in four more Group 1 events over a mile and a half, he also stayed well enough to take the G2 Goodwood Cup over two miles and the G2 Prix Kergorlay over a furlong less. His stamina virtually ruled out his chances of becoming a flat stallion, but he has a lot to offer Britain’s jumping breeders. 
Sanwa has another Classic-winning sibling in Salve Regina, who landed the Preis der Diana in 2002 after finishing second in the Deutsches Derby. 
    The quality of this family is also reflected in the achievements of Sacarina’s broodmare daughters. Salve Regina has a Grade II winner to her credit in Salve Germania (Ballston Spa H.), but she has yet to achieve the Group 1 distinction already achieved by three of Sacarina’s other daughters. In addition to Sanwa, they are Sahel, another Monsun mare who produced the Italian Group 1 winner Sortilege and Sasuela, a Dashing Blade mare who produced the German Group 1 winner Seismos. 
It is strange to think that Sea The Moon’s third dam, the Ridan mare Brave Lass, was once one of the cheaper mares at Jim Joel’s 1986 dispersal, at 40,000gns. However, she had won four of her five starts at two to earn a Timeform rating of 114. 
Brave Lass had German Classic connections, as her dam Bravour, Germany’s best 2-year-old filly of 1965, won the 1,000 Guineas and was third in her country’s Oaks, a race once won by her half-sister Brisanz. 
Sea The Moon’s sire Sea The Stars also has some German blood. His second dam, the celebrated Allegretta, was bred by Gestut Schlendhan and Allegretta’s second and third dams were both daughters of Deutsches Derby winners (Birkhan and Magnat respectively). Alya, a sister to Allegretta, is the second dam of Adlerflug, the 2007 Deutsches Derby winner. 
So Sea The Moon has a truly classic background and the style of his Hamburg victory suggests that it is far from impossible that he’ll emulate his sire’s Arc victory.