Brilliant Sea of Class fighting for her life
SEA OF CLASS is fighting for her life after suffering an attack of colic that has brought the two-time Group 1 heroine’s career to an abrupt end.
Trainer William Haggas is “praying” the daughter of Sea The Stars can be saved after revealing his stable star underwent surgery for the condition last Wednesday.
But what is for certain is that Sea Of Class, an agonising short neck second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp last October, has run her final race.
“There is no question that her racing career is over, 100 per cent,” said Haggas, whose four-year-old returned fifth of eight behind Crystal Ocean on her comeback in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
“We are all praying she makes a full and complete recovery to enjoy life as a broodmare.
“She had surgery on Wednesday and is under intensive care. If she was a human you would say she was critical but stable.
“At the moment she is at the vet’s and is doing as well as can be expected. You just have to take each day as it comes.”
Meanwhile, Enable, the horse who so narrowly denied Sea Of Class victory in that memorable Arc, made a successful return to the fray with a cosy victory in Saturday’s Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park.
Connections said she is none the worse for her exertions and bang on course to bid for a second King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot a fortnight on Saturday.
The John Gosden-trained mare, who captured the King George under Frankie Dettori two summers ago, defied her 245-day absence with a three-quarter-length margin over old rival Magical ridden by Ryan Moore.
“To get her back on track, having not run since November, and going straight into a pretty hot Group 1 with battle-hardened contenders – to dispatch them the way she did was very encouraging,” said Lord Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Enable’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah.