THE breeding industry lost an outstanding matriarch on Monday when Urban Sea, winner of the 1993 Arc and dam of Galileo, died at the Irish National Stud following complications after foaling a colt by Invincible Spirit. The daughter of Miswaki was 20-years-old. The colt is reported to be in healthy condition and has been placed on a nurse mare.:zzzzzzzzz: :zzzzzzzzz:
"Everybody at the stud is absolutely devastated," said Julie Lynch, stallion nominations manager at the Irish National Stud. "We were all immensely proud to be associated with such an outstanding broodmare. A mare like her comes along but once in a lifetime. Her foal is such a smashing colt, he weighed in at 130lbs and his nurse mare has accepted him without a fuss."
While Urban Sea is not alone in compiling an outstanding record at stud, few mares are able to place it hand in hand with a top-class career on the track.
"She was the mare who answered back," said Tony Morris, the Racing Post's bloodstock columnist. "We called her the most forgettable of Arc winners. She kept giving us reasons to remember her."
Trained by Jean Lesbordes for owner David Tsui, Urban Sea spent the majority of her racing career in France,where she won eight races and the equivalent of £1,331,775 in prize-money.
Although precocious enough to win as a juvenile, she improved with age, taking two Listed races before finishing three-quarters of a length adrift ofJolypha in the Prix Vermeille as a three-year-old.
A win in the Prix Exbury on her four-year-old debut saw her resume winning ways and she wasn't disgraced when a close second to Placerville in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes.
However, although successful in the Prix Gontaut Biron during Deauville's summer meeting, she didn't appeal as a Group 1 winner waiting to happen and consequently was sent off at 37/1 for that year's Arc, which featured a 23-strong field including the Group 1 winners White Muzzle, Opera House, Intrepidity and Hernando among others.
As it turned out however, Urban Sea peaked at the right time, and after taking up the running a furlong out under Eric Saint-Martin, she bravely repelled the challenge of White Muzzle to cross the line a neck in front, earning European champion older mare honours in the process.
Kept in training for another season, she rewarded connections with a win in the Prix d'Harcourt.
URBAN SEA'S PRODUCE RECORD| Year | Sire | Name | Notable races won |
| 1996 | Bering c | Urban Ocean | Gallinule S. - Gr3 |
| 1997 | Lammtarra f | Melikah | Pretty Polly S. - L, 3rd Oaks - Gr1 |
| 1998 | Sadler's Wells c | Galileo | Derby - Gr1, Irish Derby - Gr1, King George - Gr1 etc. Champion sire |
| 1999 | Sadler's Wells c | Black Sam Bellamy | Gran Premio del Jockey Club - Gr1, Tattersalls Gold Cup - Gr1. Sire |
| 2000 | Sadler's Wells c | Atticus | Unraced |
| 2001 | Sadler's Wells f | All Too Beautiful | Middleton S. - Gr3, 2nd Oaks - Gr1 |
| 2002 | Giant's Causeway f | My Typhoon | Diana H'cap - G1, Mrs. Reverse S. - G2, Just A Game S. - G2 etc |
| 2004 | Green Desert f | Cherry Hinton | 2nd Blue Wind S. - Gr3 |
| 2005 | Green Desert c | Sea's Legacy | Unraced |
| 2006 | Cape Cross c | Sea The Stars | Beresford S. - Gr2 |
| 2009 | Invincible Spirit | bay colt | |
Urban Sea's first mate when she retired to stud in 1995 was the Prix du Jockey-Club hero Bering, to whom she produced
Urban Ocean, the first of seven winners and eight black-type performers out of the mare.
Five of those achieved a win or placing at Group/Grade 1 level led by
My Typhoon, who became the most expensive filly foal ever sold at auction when knocked down to Live Oak Stable for 1.8m guineas at the 2002 Tattersalls December Foal Sale, and the Oaks-placed pair
All Too Beautiful and
Melikah. The latter topped the 1998 Deauville August Sale after selling for Ffr10,000,000 to Gainsborough Stud.
However, it is as the dam of dual Derby winner
Galileo for which Urban Sea will be forever remembered.
Now based at Coolmore Stud, the son of Sadler's Wells has slipped effortlessly into the role of heir to his sire thanks to a first sires' championship last year and ten Group/Grade 1 winners including Classic scorers New Approach, Sixties Icon, Soldier Of Fortune, Cima De Triomphe and Nightime.
His year younger brother, Tattersalls Gold Cup winner
Black Sam Bellamy, was also represented by a first Classic winner last year when Valdino scored in the Deutsches St Leger.
Urban Sea's most recent progeny to race, the three-year-old colt
Sea The Stars, has every chance of following that illustrious pair if his juvenile season was any indication. The son of Cape Cross won two of his three starts for John Oxx including theBeresford Stakes and is as short at 6/1 for the Derby.
