by Peter Hohlweg ©

Captain Steve was a multiple Grade 1 winner in the U.S.A. and he won at two, three, and four, third in the Breeder's Cup Classic (G1) and victor in the Dubai World Cup(G1). He has been finally sold for $5 million to the Japan Racing Association. "I was really surprised at the lack of interest in him from the American", Mike Pegram claimed. "It was done with mixed emotions."

However, we are interested in Captain Steve's pedigree.

1. Captain Steve's parents

At first glance, looking at his pedigree, it's not obvious how he could score such a fine race record. His parents represents good class, but did not rank with the crème de la crème. Captain Steve's sire Fly So Free, top-rated as a two-year-old, was disappointing with his first crops. However, some of his progeny have performed excellent, namely Free Vacation, Captain Steve and Arabian Light, and a little different picture is drawn.

He is a representative of the Teddy sireline, alive via Damascus. At present Gilded Time, Afternoon Deelites and Skip Away are the best known stallions of the Teddy line, also several sons of Private Account. Another son of Damascus is Time For A Change, who sired Fly So Free.

Sparkling Delite is the dam of Captain Steve. She won $36,680. Retired to stud she got first class chances, and produced three fillies. Neon Delite (1991, by Gone West) and Dazzling (1992, by Miswaki) came each up with about $30,000 on the racetrack. Miss Bouvier (1993 by Gone West) was unraced. After that trio she was unlucky, lost her foal, was not covered, and next she slipped.

She was offered by Bob and Alice's Little River Farm at Keeneland November Mixed 1996, pregnant with Captain Steve and sold for $19,000 to Roger Laubach's Sport O'Kings Farm. A year later, she was in foal to Irgun and again she was sold, this time for $7,500. And three month later in February 1998, she changed hands for $7,000 to Group 1 Stables.

It was a not so sparkling story until Captain Steve began to race. But before he did this, he also was sold severals times. He was bought as a weanling for $12,000 by C.J.Williams, and a year later, Mike Pegram payed $70,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Selected Yearling Sales of 1998.

2. The female line

Tracing back his damline, family 20a, he finds his roots in Variety (1808), Ghuznee (1841,GB Oaks) and Emily (1857). His sixth dam is Princess Camelia (1929). Malacate, the 1976 Irish Derby winner is also tail-female to this dam, and a mix of My Babu, Teddy and Blue Larkspur appears in the pedigree of both Malacate and Captain Steve.

The fourth dam of Captain Steve is Nimble Doll (1952). A descendant of her is Proud Delta, a U.S. Grade 1 winner and a Champion. There are strains of Blue Larkspur, Nasrullah and Hyperion in her pedigree. The third dam is Alotoffun (1966) by Crozier, who is a son of My Babu. This introduced the cross of Pharos-Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal into the pedigree of Captain Steve, because My Babu's dam is Perfume by Badruddin (by Blandford out of Mumtaz Mahal) and the granddam of My Babu is the Pharos-mare Lavendula. This nick appears also in the pedigrees of Nasrullah and Northern Dancer.

The next mare in the damline is Sparkling Topaz (1974). She performed well and ran graded-placed. Sparkling Topaz is by Jacinto, who is tail-male to Nasrullah. So a duplication of the cross results, because Nasrullah is a son of Nearco (by Pharos) and his dam is the Blenheim II mare Mumtaz Begum.

When Sparkling Topaz and Vice Regent mated, the result was Sparkling Delite (1985). Once again the cross of Pharos, Blandford and Mumtaz Mahal was reinforced because Vice Regent's sire Northern Dancer was bred similarly to Jacinto. Northern Dancer's grandsire is also Nearco and his second dam Almahmoud is by Mahmoud, a son of Blenheim II and Mah Mahal.

So that's a good example for building up a linebreeding to several ancestors, who create a nick, by using similarly bred stallions in successive matings. If the carriers of the nick are different, in this case My Babu, Nasrullah and Northern Dancer, there is a good chance of avoiding the risk of inbreeding depression. In the first generations of Sparkling Delite's pedigree there is no inbreeding, but interesting linebreedings.

3. The mating

Which sire is suitable for a Vice Regent mare ? To start with, Vice Regent had a full brother named Viceregal. (Don't confuse him with the successful New Zealand-bred stallion by Bismark named Vice Regal, who sired another Vice Regent. Now are you confused?). Viceregal earned a Sovereign Award as champion juvenile in Canada and marked the starting point of Northern Dancer's career as a stallion. Later, Viceregal became the damsire of Trempolino, Arc winner and second in Breeder's Cup Turf. Trempolino has Native Dancer 3S x 5d and Hyperion 6S x 4S x 6d.

Viceregal's brother, Vice Regent, gained more merits as stallion, largely because Vice Regent sired Deputy Minister, two times Leading Sire in North America. In 2001,Deputy Minister is also proving himself as a successful sire of sires. His son French Deputy had three Grade 1 winning progeny on the racetrack, the U.S. runner Left Bank also the Japanese runners Kurofune and Nobo Jack. Now Kurofune is running to be a superstar after his stunning show in Japan Cup Dirt (G1 Jpn). Spot on Vice Regent!

Vice Regent not only sired Deputy Minister, he was also an excellent damsire, which is where our interest lies. Prominent runners Marquetry and Victory Gallop are out of Vice Regent mares, and because they are sired by Mr. Prospector line stallions they have both the popular cross of Mr. Prospector on a Northern Dancer line mare. Just like Captain Steve, they were successful about 1 ¼ miles. Whereas Victory Gallop is too young a stallion to rate him, Marquetry already sired two Breeders Cup Sprint winners (Artax and Squirtle Squirt).

Another top-class horse out of a Vice Regent mare is Boston Harbor. He is not a Mr. Prospector line stallion, instead, he is by Capote, a Nasrullah line stallion. Therefore Boston Harbor shares sire side Nasrullah with Victory Gallop and Marquetry. Well, that's nothing special. The striking point is that Boston Harbor has sire-side a lot of Nasrullah, because his sire Capote is heavy inbreed to Nasrullah 5S x 5s x 3D x 4d. That's special, and Captain Steve was bred along a similar pattern.

Like Captain Steve, Boston Harbor was sold to Japan and will stand at JBBA Shizunai Stallion Station on Hokkaido in 2002. Why did the Japanese buy two similarly bred horses at the same time? It may be a strategic investment.

Like Boston Harbor, Captain Steve is not a Mr. Prospector line sire, but he has linebreeding to Nasrullah 5S x 4D because of Bold Ruler on the dam-side and Nashua on the sire-side. Additionally, My Babu is on the top of Fly So Free's pedigree. Remember that Nasrullah and My Babu represents the cross Pharos-Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal. So, Captain Steve was bred like Boston Harbor on the pattern of a Vice Regent mare mated to a sire with several strains of Pharos-Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal. Furthermore remember that Captain Steve has additional strains of that cross contributed from his dam Sparkling Delite. In short, Captain Steve is linebred six times to the nick Pharos-Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal.

Another point is that Captain Steve is linebred to Native Dancer 4s x 5d. He has that in common with Free Vacation, a Canadian champion mare by Fly So Free. Damsire of Free Vacation is the Northen Dancer son Far North.

Nowadays a lot of horses are inbred/ close linebred to Native Dancer, because Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector and Sharpen Up are close to Native Dancer, also Alydar or Wild Again. I think the problem is well known. The risk of inbreeding depression emerges. On the other hand there are some top-class horses inbred to Native Dancer e.g. Elmhurst, Machiavellian or Peintre Celebre, also Marquetry and Victory Gallop, and not forgetting Skimming.

It's interesting to compare Victory Gallop with Captain Steve. One key in Victory Gallop's pedigree is probably the cross of Mr. Prospector and Turn-to, and another is the well known nick of Mr.Prospector on a Northern Dancer line mare. Captain Steve lacks those crosses, but there are other features.

In both pedigrees Vice Regent is the damsire. Both have the above-mentioned My Babu, Nasrullah and Native Dancer. There's more. Blue Larkspur is the sire of the third dam of Cryptoclerance (sire of Victory Gallop) as well as Fly So Free, and Blue Larkspur is an exceptional damsire. Look at the pedigrees of e.g. T.V.Lark, Grey Dawn II, Roberto or Damascus, also Buckpasser or Mr. Prospector. And remember Malacate and Proud Delta. The sire of Malacate's third dam is again Blue Larkspur (and note that Malacate's damsire is the above mentioned My Babu; he has also a close inbreeding to Teddy).

Comparing Captain Steve with Victory Gallop, you will find another point. Fappiano (sire of Cryptoclearance) has Cequillo as third dam, and Time For A Change as sire of Fly So Free has as third dam Misty Morn (out of Grey Flight). Both mares are by Princequillo out of a Mahmoud daughter. Both produced stakes winners, Misty Morn even two juvenile champions (Bold Lad and Successor).

So it may be that Captain Steve and Victory Gallop have different keys in their pedigree, but there are mosaic pieces they share throwing light on their pedigree: Vice Regent, Nasrullah, Native Dancer, My Babu, Blue Larkspur and Cequillo/ Misty Morn.

Finally, have a look at the linebreedings to Hyperion and Discovery in the pedigree of Captain Steve. Hyperion is 7s x 6s x 6d x 8D. There's a strain of Hyperion by each of Captain Steve's grandparents. Hyperion himself was inbred to St.Simon 4S x 3D. He was a small sized racehorse, but won the Epsom Derby and the Doncaster St. Leger Stakes. Discovery appears 7s x 8s x 6s x 7d x 6d in the pedigree of Captain Steve. Discovery was a champion handicapper and influenced the thoroughbred breeding stock as the damsire of Bold Ruler and Native Dancer.

In our context, two of their descendants are interesting, Traffic Judge and Deceit Dancer. First, have a look at the pedigree of Traffic Judge (1952) by the Hyperion-son Alibhai. He was the third in the Preakness Stakes and at five won the Metropolitan Handicap and the Suburban Handicap. He was inbred to Tracery, but represented also a successful combination of Hyperion and Discovery. The dam of Traffic Court was sired by Discovery. Furthermove the above mentioned Proud Delta is by Traffic Judge's son Delta Judge. She belongs to Captain Steve's family 20a and Hyperion appears in her pedigree 4S x 4D. Hyperion is an important gentic source, remember Fall Aspen.

Secondly, the mare Deceit Dancer (1982) is interesting because she is by Vice Regent and her third dam is Conniver (1944), probably the best daughter of Discovery. Deceit Dancer was awarded a Sovereign as Canadian Champion 2yo filly and scored a third in the Canadian Oaks.

4. Conclusions

My conclusion is that Captain Steve is very well bred. Fly So Free is the perfect choice for a mating with Sparkling Delite. The linebreedings in Captain Steve's pedigree are well embeded in patterns verified by some excellent horses: first, six times the cross Pharos-Blandford-Mumtaz Mahal, secondly some similarities to Boston Harbor and Victory Gallop and thirdly the linebreedings to Hyperion respectively Discovery. Captain Steve will stand at Shizunai Stallion Station on the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan.