TIPPING POINT:It's probably just as well Born To Sea can't twig the familial expectation hanging around his handsome head this coming weekend in the 2,000 Guineas, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR
PONDERING GENETICS and the nature-nurture thing when it comes to sporting siblings can be a sensitive topic. It provokes a eugenic vibe, images of Lebensborn stud farms and Nazi loons breeding Breivik-inadequates for the war in the East, all blonde, blue-eyed, sexually-repressed weirdness . . . but it can be fun too.
Why for instance does Lionel Messi play football like God and his brother Rodrigo plays like the chef that he is? And can you imagine what it must have been like to be Muhammad Ali’s brother and have a modicum of boxing talent? That was Rudy Clay’s lot. And it was still his lot on turning into Rahman Ali. No wonder he jacked it in.
Sibling rivalry is a bugger. Cain and Abel got it on the button, that maddening combination of love and jealousy and of lives determined by different dates in the delivery room. Some biologists reckon the second-born has an automatic advantage over the first, whatever the creature. And yet most of the second-outs I know resent the hell out of their older sibling. All of which makes it hard to be definitive about such a whirling vortex of emotion.
Venus Williams is a wonderful champion and lives the life of privilege that her outstanding gifts have provided. But don’t tell me deep down sometimes she doesn’t feel a pang about her younger sister Serena having the Grand Slam of major titles.
Or that Phil Neville doesn’t get stabs of envy at having more talent than his mouthy brother but still getting the boot from Old Trafford.
Peyton Manning may be a God-fearing blue-eyed son of the US of A but it’s hard to believe he doesn’t occasionally wonder how he ends up with the all-time reputation yet kid brother Eli gets the Super Bowl rings.
Closer to home, what must the gasps of relief have been like in the Brogan household when Alan was made Footballer of the Year in 2011, just a year after Bernard got the gong? And Mrs Charlton must have given thanks to God Almighty that Jack and Bob both got World Cup winners medals.
Mrs Laudrup didn’t get as lucky. When her son Brian got a European Championship medal with Denmark 20 years ago, his older brother Michael stayed on holiday, righteous in his indignation at the coach, yet presumably sore beyond belief at missing out.
But they were all nurtured into football. It still beggars belief the scale of Richard Williams’ imagination in creating two tennis champions from the Compton area of Los Angeles where rackets normally didn’t come courtesy of Nike. And while it mightn’t be prudent to say so, don’t say genes don’t come into that.
Mind you so does incredible determination, natural talent, and a parent pushy enough to send the Springbok scrum into retreat.
In the circumstances then it’s probably just as well that Born To Sea can’t twig the familial expectation hanging around his handsome head this coming weekend when he lines up for the first Classic of the year in Newmarket’s 2,000 Guineas. Or maybe he does, and simply isn’t letting on. When it comes to Born To Sea’s gene-pool, you rule anything out at your peril.
Thoroughbred breeding is a liberal nightmare, a flesh-and-blood two-fingers to the right-on. Eugenics might be controversial in humanity but its fundamentals are the basis of a 300-year attempt to ‘make’ the ultimate racehorse. It’s Born To Sea’s fate to have an older brother that might just have been the culmination of all that work.
It is three years since Sea The Stars first gave a glimpse of his embryonic greatness in the 2,000 Guineas, a straight mile gallop which for over 200 years has decided who earns a place in racing’s history books. For Sea The Stars it was just a prologue.
A month later he won the Derby at a mile and a half, the first in 20 years to do the double. Then came three Group One wins at a mile and a quarter and a perfect six-for-six Group One season ended with an Arc success so special it almost defied belief.
In sporting terms, 2009 is currently best remembered for Ireland’s rugby Grand Slam: time will ensure it will become primarily the year of Sea The Stars.
The day after that Arc, the press were allowed join the welcome home party for Sea The Stars on the Curragh. I remember telling a news colleague to take a good look at the colt fidgeting in front of us because he was the nearest either one of us would ever get to perfection. He looked at me with a newsman’s smiley indulgence for an over-excitable sports hack: a bit like a parent smiling at a wet toddler who hasn’t made the toilet quick enough. Time might have reduced the excitement but not the sentiment.
Sea The Stars was trained by John Oxx, also trainer of Born To Sea, and a man congenitally unable to indulge in the hype of an industry where bullshit can impact directly on a sale price. And when he says Sea The Stars was the culmination of those 300 years’ worth of dreams then his statement brings with it a whole lot of credibility.
If there was a single flaw in that horse, Oxx couldn’t find it. Physically and temperamentally there was nothing to crab: in pedigree terms he could hardly be better. Distance made no difference to Sea The Stars, neither did ground. And it was all backed up by a natural talent so wondrous the horse never even went to the bottom of the tank.
Mick Kinane reckoned Sea The Stars only had to show 75 per cent of his ability. Not unreasonably the colt reckoned once he’d passed all the opposition, there was little point in bursting a gut to go clear of them. Once Sea The Star retired, so did Kinane, convinced nothing he ever threw a leg over again would even come close.
And maybe nothing will. But there’s a synchronicity to Born To Sea appearing in the Guineas that’s hard to ignore. Oxx trains him. Kinane even rides him in his work. And it’s not as if it’s even that much of a genetic fluke.
Born To Sea is the last foal out of Urban Ocean, good enough to win an Arc herself, but subsequently mother of a handful of other top-class horses besides Sea The Stars. They include Galileo, a dual-Derby winner and currently the world’s most valuable stallion. Now that’s a legacy to live up to.
Born To Sea may never be as good as his brother, but there’s a good chance nothing to look through a bridle ever will be again. And contrary to the expectations of every wife out there, perfection is an illusory concept anyway. Excellence is the aim. And Born To Sea might just rise to that.
Perfection is God’s business.
