By Jack Werk

Just recently it was reported in all the trades that Sea the Stars’ book had been closed and that the only additions would come from The Tsuis and the Aga Khan.

Canadian owner and breeder Chuck Fipke, my friend and client, is one of the fortunate few who will be breeding a mare to the great European champion in 2010, I’m happy to report. I’ll be the first to tell you, too, that Chuck didn’t originally purchase the mare in question to breed to Sea the Stars. It was after he had purchased her at the Fasig-Tipton November sale last month that the idea just came to him. You’ll soon see why.

Here’s how the story began. Chuck hadn’t received his catalog for the F-T sale until the morning of the sale. However, I had sent him a shortlist of mares I thought he’d be interested in, and one of them was Hip #46 from the Adena Springs consignment. When we (Chuck, his Canadian advisers RJ and Lois Bennett, and me) were at Adena Springs inspecting prospective mares, they brought out Always Awesome – Hip #46! (Click here to view the pedigree). A daughter of Awesome Again, she is from the immediate family of Urban Sea – the dam of Sea the Stars! Chuck has been a HUGE Urban Sea fan and when he saw her pedigree and then her conformation, that was it – he had to have her! Initially, he wanted to buy her specifically because of the family and said he would use her to support his two stallions, Tale of Ekati and Perfect Soul.

Chuck asked me to bid on her at the sale, and I asked him how high was he willing to go? He answered me in three words: Whatever it takes! As it turned out, it took $1 million. I heard the underbidders — a Japanese group — regretted not going higher, and I don’t blame them. She is an outstanding mare, in foal on a March 3 cover to Rachel Alexandra’s sire, Medaglia d’Oro. I believe, in retrospect, that had Sheikh Mohammed been at the sale, Chuck would not have had her for a million – and he may not have had her at all!

Now, the rest of the story! After we returned home and Chuck got to thinking more about Always Awesome, the idea occurred to him to breed her to Sea the Stars. So, at the 11^th hour he asked to find out if she’d be accepted to the book of Sea the Stars!  I immediately submitted her to John Clarke of the Irish National Stud, an adviser to the Tsuis, and for good measure Chuck called John Oxx, the trainer of Sea the Stars and Chuck’s European trainer.

Chuck’s idea for the mating was a brilliant one from a pedigree standpoint. The mating would create 3×3 inbreeding to Allegretta (dam of Urban Sea) in the resulting foal. In addition to being a racing prospect, his thinking was that a filly would become a valuable broodmare prospect with this inbreeding, and if he got a colt, well … Danehill is inbred 3×3 to Natalma, another dam of a very good Derby winner!

Upon being notified by John Clarke that she was in fact accepted to his first book, Chuck was nearly as excited as when he discovered the Ekati diamond mine!

She is booked to fly to Ireland on January 9th. Most likely, she will become a permanent resident in Ireland, where she can be bred to Sea the Stars — and to his half brother Galileo — for years to come.

Chuck has a similar situation with Ball Chairman, the dam of his Sadler’s Wells stallion Perfect Soul (Ire). Ball Chairman is permanently boarded at Coolmore and was in fact a regular mate of Sadler’s Wells until his retirement.

Oh, by the way, Chuck has a bonus in all of this.  Remember the mare is in-foal to a Medaglia d’Oro?  Well, she was sexed and it’s a filly!

When you consider the possibilities, $1 million, funny as it may sound, might actually be dirt cheap for Always Awesome!