Sea the Stars, an Irish-trained colt ... might just be the greatest [flat runner] of them all.-Adam Smith, Time
SEA THE STARS put the seal on an incredible 2009 season ... that catapulted him into the pantheon of all-time great racehorses.-Brian O’Connor, Irish Times
Sea The Stars has been hailed as one of the greatest racehorses
Sea the Stars entered his name among the all-time greats-Alan Shuback, Daily Racing Form
Sea the Stars continued his march to greatness-Smart blogger and microbrewer, Superfecta
And wouldn’t it be great if Sea The Stars ran in the Breeders Cup? Wouldn't it be a tremendous opportunity to spotlight horse racing and grab the “casual fan”?
Well, during Sea The Stars march to intergalactic greatness, I never stumbled upon any news, articles, essays, letters to the editors, race replays, advertisements, email spam, text messages, cheers or jeers in mainstream media. No local fanfare. If Sea The Stars is the greatest racehorse since the invention of Equus caballus, shouldn’t he be a household name, like Tiger Woods?
If this notsocasual fan was so daft about that remarkable Thoroughbred who was catapulted into some kind of pantheon, how much does the "casual fan" know? I mean, would the “casual fan” even recognize Sea The Stars?
So once again, I'm required to put my scientific expertise to work.
I surveyed a sample of about a dozen individuals who might be considered “casual fan” – they’re aware of horse racing yet not highly informed about it, and they’ve heard of horses such as Seabiscuit, Secretariat, and Barbaro. A few have been to the racetrack. A small percentage of the sample affirmed that they watched the Kentucky Derby. However, all of the individuals in the sample follow sports regularly and think Manny Ramirez should get a haircut.
I asked if anyone had heard of Sea The Stars.
A couple of women thought it was some kind of fragrance or Bath and Body Works lotion. Another individual said it was the name of some cheap motel in South Padre. And another person claimed that it was astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s new children’s book, all the while providing unwarranted and unnecessary details about Buzz Aldrin's recent book signing in Fort Worth and how he thought it was really cool because he remembers watching the moon landings when he was a kid.
Anyway, nobody in the group even knew it was a horse. Please note that the sample results are somewhat skewed as the survey was conducted during a recent happy hour.
Perhaps a little social networking is in order? Sea The Stars only has 3,745 fans on Facebook. It time to friend him.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch of race replays to watch. I don't want to miss out on greatness.
3 comments:
While you're right in that he didn't make it to a lot of mainstream US media, he did make it to Time magazine:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1927869,00.html
You could do the same survey in Europe and ask about Rachel Alexandra, and you'd the same response as you did in America with Sea the Stars. Who, by the way, IS the greatest racehorse ever.
Great blog, I just started my own on wordpress (railrunner.wordpress.com) and came across your blog while searching for other racing blogs. I totally agree with your post here. Sea The Stars is a phenominal horse, but winning just six races, no matter how prestigious, in a three year old year does not make him even close the the past greats. We're talking about some horses that raced 15 or 17 times and only lost once. H'es a great three year old yes, but not the greatest horse of all time by a long shot. It's a shame that he won't get the chance to prove his mettle as a four year old, I doubt he'd dissapoint.
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