Horseracing Betting: Sea The Stars remains on Timeform rating of 140

General / Timeform / 05 October 2009 / 1 Comments

"Sea The Stars' Arc performance, while emotional and heart-warming, was actually some way removed from his best efforts in terms of form."

Sea The Stars is being lauded as the greatest racehorse to grace the Earth - and he may well be - but the bare facts and figures of the form analysis of his historic win in yesterday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe suggest he hasn't yet proved it.

The accolade of greatest racehorse of all time is still held by Sea Bird II, winner of the Arc in 1965 and rated 145 by Timeform.

Sea The Stars continues to be rated 140 by the Halifax-based organisation. Timeform has been assessing the merits of racehorses for more than 60 years and in that time has rated only Sea Bird II (145), Brigadier Gerard (144), Ribot (142) and Mill Reef (141) more highly than John Oxx's Irish-based champion.

"His Arc performance, while emotional and heart-warming, was actually some way removed from his best efforts in terms of form," explains Timeform's Kieran Packman. "A two-length defeat of Youmzain is no more than Zarkava achieved last year. When winning the Eclipse at Sandown, Sea The Stars had Conduit three lengths further behind him than he did at Longchamp, and the proximity of the mare La Boum, beaten only around five lengths when seventh in Paris, suggests Sea The Stars ran to a rating of 129 for his Arc victory."

Unquestionably a brilliant racehorse following his outstanding series of Group One wins this year, Sea The Stars - because of his style of racing - may find it difficult to challenge Sea Bird's record figures even if he was to go on and win the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita, as Mr Packman explains:

"Ratings tell only part of the story, defining what a horse has actually achieved on the racecourse. We have six decades of analysis to help us assess each and every performance and all ratings relate to what the formbook says a horse has actually achieved, regardless of the hype and general speculation. Many of us might believe Sea The Stars is the best we've seen or will ever see, but his racing style has so far precluded him from winning any races by a wide margin and, as a result, being rated any more highly than his current 140 assessment.

"In all probability, he's the sort of horse who could well manage a Sea Bird-type rating if he had the right race and/or the right opponents to stretch him to his limits, but the Arc did not provide that test for him yesterday."

Comments (1)

1. Anonymous | 27 September 2011

   seathestarsisbyfarthegreatesthorseiveeverseenbasedonwhohehasbeaten.