Sun Stud’s Statue Of Liberty (USA) earned an honourable retirement earlier this year and the royally-bred son of Storm Cat looks to have an exciting prospect in the Mick Kent-trained Sea Dragon who broke his maiden in style over 1200 metres at Seymour on Sunday.
The 3yo colt was making just his second start after finishing third when making his debut at Moonee Valley on October 4.
Making full use of his inside barrier, Luke Nolen had Sea Dragon travelling sweetly out front and when asked for an effort in the straight accelerated impressively to put three and a half lengths on the runner-up Stretto (Nicconi) with Bartender Blues (Instinction) a further two and a quarter lengths back in third.
“He’s a nice neat type with a good racing style and he’ll probably stretch out to a mile so he’s got it all in front of him,” Nolen told racing.com.
“Mick’s done a fine job of producing him in great order. He drew a soft gate and controlled the tempo and he showed them a clean set of heels.
“He’s a bit like me, a bit casual, he just takes a bit of reminding, but he responded well, which is really encouraging because he is learning on the job at this stage.”
Trainer Mick Kent said the stable had fancied the son of Statue Of Liberty (USA) at his debut at Moonee Valley but was overruled when he suggested to geld him.
“When he first came in he was quite little and dumpy and I suggested to the owner that he geld him,” Kent revealed.
“The owner alerted me to his pedigree. Ralph Zito, who bred him and bred Mystic Journey is a bit of a pedigree buff and this is an amazing pedigree if anyone wants to look it up.
“The horse wants a mile I think so it’s pretty promising.
“I thought he could win at the Valley and we took a sit and he was a bit green in the straight. He took great improvement off it mentally and he was always in control of the race today.”
Ralph Zeto purchased Sea Dragon’s dam North Sea (Hussonet) for $55,000 out of the Arrowfield consignment at the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
North Sea is out of the Pancho Villa mare Oceanette whose dam Oceana (Northern Dancer) is a sister to Storm Cat’s sire Storm Bird while Pancho Villa (Secretariat) is a brother to Storm Cat’s dam Terlingua out of the wonderful producer Crimson Saint who also produced that magnificent thoroughbred Royal Academy (Nijinsky) and the top-class broodmare Prawn Cocktail (USA) (Artichoke).
Besides Sea Dragon, North Sea is the dam of the Group III Breeders Stakes runner-up Aim Smart (Smart Missile) as well as the Randwick winning Beneteau filly Jeanneau who was runner-up in the Listed Gimcrack Stakes.
North Sea has a 2yo sister to Sea Dragon named Sea Nymph and after missing to Mshawish (USA) in 2017, she foaled a colt by Gailieo’s 4-time Group 1 winning son Churchill (IRE) on September 2.
Churchill (IRE) is out of Storm Cat’s top producing daughter Meow.
