Regally bred Crystal Ocean a fitting Group 1 winner at Royal Ascot

Crystal Ocean, triumphant in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot on Wednesday, has a regal pedigree befitting the occasion.

The five-year-old, trained by Sir Michael Stoute for owner-breeder Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, was gaining a well deserved first Group 1 victory having scored once in Group 2 company, five times in Group 3s and finishing second in three Group 1 races – the St Leger, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Champion Stakes. He has not failed to finish out of the first three in 15 starts.

He becomes the 11th elite winner for the great Sea The Stars, who enlivened the Flat season ten years ago by winning the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse, Juddmonte International, Irish Champion Stakes and Arc and is standing his tenth season at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud at a fee of €135,000.

Sea The Stars' roll of honour includes Epsom Classic winners Harzand and Taghrooda, while among his previous royal meeting scorers are Gold Cup and Queen's Vase victor Stradivarius and King Edward VII Stakes winner Across The Stars.

Crystal Ocean also has Royal Ascot heritage on the distaff side of his pedigree.

He is the seventh foal out of Crystal Star, a daughter of Mark Of Esteem who represented Crystal Ocean's connections when she won the Listed Radley Stakes at two and took second in the Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes at three.

Sea The Stars: stands at Gilltown Stud at a fee of 135,000 eurosCredit: Patrick McCann

The dam has produced three other stakes winners – Crystal Capella (by Sea The Stars' sire Cape Cross), who won the Princess of Wales's Stakes and the Pride Stakes twice; Hillstar (by Danehill Dancer), who notched a success in the King Edward VII Stakes and now stands at Garryrichard Stud; and Crystal Zvezda (by Dubawi), who scored in the Listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies' Trial.

Crystal King, a four-year-old son of Frankel and Crystal Star's final foal before she died in 2015, is the winner of two of his last three starts but finished down the field in a competitive heat at York last time. He is entered to run in a handicap at Ayr on Saturday.

Crystal Star was a half-sister to Listed Aphrodite Stakes winner Waila, and they were in turn out of Crystal Cavern, a winning Be My Guest half-sister to Poule d'Essai des Pouliches heroine Rose Gypsy.

Crystal Cavern's maternal granddam was Sassalya, who was something of a blue hen, producing the high-class pair Sally Rous and Sasuru, Listed winners Little Bean and Sossus Vlei, Gold Cup third Chauve Souris, Group 2-placed Assemblyman and Park Hill Stakes runner-up The Faraway Tree, who went on to produce US Grade 1 winner Tuscan Evening.

Four horses by Sea The Stars out of Mark Of Esteem mares have made it onto the Racing Post database; all have won and two of those are the Royal Ascot winners Across The Stars and Crystal Ocean.

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