I’M THE ONE (William Buick) wins The Dreweatts Maiden Fillies Stakes Newbury 17 Apr 2026 by six lengths in effortless fashion – Pic Steven Cargill / Racingfotos.com
John Gosden has apparently been surprised by the comparisons of Gaynor Rupert’s homebred filly I’m The One to Enable, considering she is just starting out whilst Enable was a twice Arc winner, a three -time King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, an Epsom Oaks winner, A Coral Eclipse winner, a Breeders Cup Turf winner and had three other Gr 1 wins.
However, I’m The One possibly has an even better Arc pedigree than Enable had.
Galileo has had a great influence on the Arc and Enable is by his son Nathaniel.
However, I’m The One’s sire Sea The Stars is not only an Arc winner himself but he is a half-brother to Galileo and Sea The Stars also sired the 2025 Arc winner Daryz.
Galileo and Sea The Stars’ dam is the legendary Urban Sea, who was also an Arc winner.
Urban Sea has German blood in her and has two copies of a 1930-born German sire called Alchimist, who was a German Derby winner.
Considering Urban Sea’s win in the Arc plus her influence on the race via Galileo and Sea The Stars, Alchimist will appear in the pedigrees of many Arc winners.
However, where it gets interesting is that in the last sixty years there have only been four instances in which neither a French-bred, Irish-bred nor British-bred won the Arc and in three of those instances a German-bred won it.
In all cases of the German-breds winning it their pedigrees have had copies of Alchimist that do not come via Urban Sea
The Alchimist also appears sometimes in the pedigrees of Non-German-breds from sources other than Urban Sea, an example being 2023 winner Ace Impact, who had copies of Alchimist via his Galileo line sire Cracksman, but also copies in his damsire Anabaa Blue’s line.
The exciting point about I’m The One from this point of view is that she is not only by Sea The Stars, as mentioned, but also has a bottom line female by Alchimist. This bottom line female happens to be the German Derby winner and hugely influential mare Schwarzgold. Stars descended in the female line from Schwarzgold include brilliant Derby winner Slip Anchor, Breeders’ Cup winning champion Steinlen, Arc winner Sagace, and Irish Derby winner Zagreb. The Schwarzgold story is all the more remarkable when taking into account that she only had two foals.
Furthermore I’m The One is out of a Camelot mare and Camelot is not only by Arc winner Montjeu but he himself is the sire of 2024 Arc winner Bluestocking.
The article below explains the influence of Alchimist on the Arc and on thoroughbred breeding in general:
Where Do Silvano And Vercingetorix Get Their Prepotency From?
Picture: The German-bred 1933 German Derby winner Alchimist could well have had a major influence on the thoroughbred breed, although he is not given much credit
German thoroughbred breeding has been massively influential in Europe, while South Africa has now had two champion sires that originate from German bloodlines, the German-bred Silvano and his phenomenal record-setting son Vercingetorix.
Silvano and Vercingetorix were and are respectively based at German breeder Andreas Jacob’s Maine Chance Farms, who also stand the German-bred Querari and did stand the German-bred Quasillo.
When researching where the class of German bloodlines originates from a certain stallion keeps on cropping up and it is amazing this horse, a German Derby winner called Alchimist, is no more than a footnote in thoroughbred history.
The Prix de l’Arc de Triompe is generally regarded as the pinnacle turf flat race in the world and it will be a rare occasion that Alchimist does not appear in the pedigree of the winner, the reason being he appears twice in the pedigree of Urban Sea, who is dam of Galileo, the most successful sire in throughbred history.
Galileo is the only sire in history to sire over 100 Gr 1 winners.
Urban Sea is one of the greatest broodmares in thoroughbred history as she also produced Sea The Stars, who is regarded as one of the greatest racehorses of all time having won the 2000 Guineas, the Eclipse, the Derby, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Arc in the same year. His progeny have won classic races including the Derby, Irish Derby, and the Oaks and he is in fact the sire of the reigning Arc champion, Daryz.
Urban Sea’s third dam is by Alchimist’s German Derby-winning son Birkahn.
Urban Sea’s damsire is Lombard, whose sire Agio is out of an Alchimist mare.
The 2024 Arc winner Bluestocking was the first Arc winner to have no copies of Alchimist in her pedigree since 2015 winner Golden Horn.
Of course one can take any top stallion in history and find an arbitrary horse in his pedigree and point to him or her appearing in a long list of champions.
However, where it gets interesting with Alchimist is the many Arc winners who have him in their pedigrees without the trace back from Urban Sea.
The 2023 Arc winner Ace Impact, for example, has four copies of Alchimist. He is by Frankel’s son Cracksman, so has the two copies of Alchimist from Urban Sea, but what is fascinating in this case is that Ace Impact’s damsire is inbred 5X4 to Urban Sea’s dam Allegretta, who is by German-bred Lombard out of German-bred Anatevka. Allegretta is inbred 4X4 to Alchimist.
Where it gets really interesting with Alchimist is that he appears no fewer than five times in the pedigree of the 2021 Arc winner, the German-bred Torquator Tasso, and that horse does not have Urban Sea in his pedigree.
Interestingly, Almyra, the third dam of Urban Sea, is a bottom line female on the pedigree of both Torquator Tasso’s sire Alderflug and his dam Tijuana (Toylsome). Almyra is by Alchimist’s son Birkahn.
Alchimist also appears five times in the pedigree of the 2019 Arc winner Waldgeist, who is by Galileo and from a German female line.
Alchimist is the granddam sire of Germany’s first Arc winner in 1975, Star Appeal, and appears in the pedigree of the 2011 German-bred Arc winner Danedream.
The German-bred Silvano’s sire Lomitas was by the Nijinsky sire Nininski and was out of a dam by Surumu, who was a six-times champion sire and twice Champion Broodmare sire. Surumu was bred by the Jacobs family’s Germany-based stud Gestüt Fährhof and is a son of Literat, who is a son of Alchmist’s son Birkahn.
Querari is a regular top six stallion in South Africa and his dam also hails from the Surumu-Alchimist sire line.
Quasillo had three copies of Alchimist as his sire was Sea The Stars and he is a half-brother to Querari.
Their dam was by the Gestüt Fährhof-bred champion Acatenango, who won seven Gr 1s and whose progeny include Lando, who was ridden to Japan Cup glory by South Africa’s Michael “Muis” Roberts. Acatenango is a son of Surumu’s.
The Jacobs family-bred Surumu appears twice in the pedigree of 2019 Arc winner Waldgeist and Acatenango is sire of his third dam.
2011 Arc winner Danedream is a paternal half-brother to Silvano, being by Lomitas.
Silvano is not only a six-times Champion sire, but also the most successful Hollywoodbets Durban July sire in history, as is well documented.
Vercingetorix is the current champion sire and smashed numerous records to get there, his progeny accumulating the most stakes ever in a season and he produced the most stakes winners ever in a season, not to mention his Sales prices obliterating previous records.
Alchimist must have had some influence on their strong bloodlines.
And yet he is just a footnote in history.
In the Graham Sharpe book “Classic Horseracing Quotes” the following insert appears:
German Derby winner Alchimist became an unusual casualty of World War II. The grooms at Gradiz, where the highly valued stallion was at stud, fled the advancing Russian troops who relieved their starvation by tucking into what must be one of the most expensive meals ever consumed.
Other accounts put it a bit differently and states the Gradiz staff took the stallion with them when fleeing, but were not allowed by the Americans to cross the border. The Russians, who were aware of the value of thoroughbred stallions, only killed the horse as a last resort after he refused to load on to their truck.
Alchimist has nevertheless been a major influence despite his untimely demise as a fifteen-year-old, but he gets scant recognition.
