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aptivant is a son of Capitalist, making him one of the first from that sire to go to stud. The stakes-placed Profiteer is another who will be standing his first season this year at Newgate in NSW. Captivant will stand at the rejuvenated Kia Ora Stud whose name features regularly in the pages of our magazine as one of the great thoroughbred nurseries in history.
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n the track, Captivant started his career on 17 October 2020 over 1000m at Randwick, winning the Victory Vein Stakes beating Akihiro. Next up was a fourth in the million-dollar Golden Gift behind Sneaky Five over 1100m at Rosehill after again getting back in the run and finishing strongly to be beaten less than two lengths. A break saw him return for a third in the Skyline before lining up in the Golden Slipper at the odds of $81. Settling towards the rear, he finished strongly for fifth despite having an interrupted run in the straight some 5.5 lengths behind
CAPTIVANT THE HIGHEST PROFILE
he colt is a son of Capitalist, the Golden Slipper winning son of champion stallion, Written Tycoon, who went to stud in 2017. He has sired seven stakes winners to date with Captivant his only Group 1 winner. Written Tycoon needs little introduction having sired almost 50 stakes winners to date including Blue Diamond winner, Written By, Stradbroke winner, Tyzone, Oakleigh Plate and AJ Moir winner, Pippie and Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas winner, Ole Kirk. Captivant is out of the Commands mare, Speedboat who was placed once in five starts, interestingly in the Picnic races at Burrumbeet. Her dam was River Express by Blazing Sword
winner, Stay Inside. Captivant ran home well again in the Sires Produce although no match for the champion colt, Anamoe but nevertheless a good third. It was then to his biggest win in the Group 1 Champagne Stakes over a mile when he was able to settle much closer to the lead, beating Hilal by 0.3 lengths. It was to be his last win, as he returned as a 3yo to have his best run in the Spring when running second to Anamoe in the Caulfield Guineas. The Autumn saw him finish third in the CS Hayes before unplaced runs in the Australian Guineas and All-Star Mile saw him retire to stud.
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who produced the Listed winner Cross Current by Keltrice. She was a half-sister to River Dove by Hurricane Sky who was to produce the Silver Slipper winning stallion Headwater. In turn, the dam of Ride The Rapid by River Rough who won the Listed James HB Carr Stakes at Randwick and was a half-sister to stakes winners I Love Sydney and Catchfire.
aptivant’s pedigree offers something of a dilemma for breeders. Capitalist traces to the wonderful filly, Bold Promise and her daughter, by Danehill, in Compulsion. As we noted, his dam is a Command’s mare, meaning that we see a close sex-balanced cross of Danehill. What is quite remarkable is that we also see sex-balanced crosses of Danzig and Marscay. We do not see these very often as we usually see Danzig through two sons, and Marscay more often through two daughters. The big question for breeders is whether it is wise to breed to any or all of these influences, or to try and breed away from them. It is a question that only time will answer for us. However, we do know that all of the best runners by Capitalist have relatively inbred pedigrees especially duplicating Danehill. Perhaps not surprisingly we see Vain duplicated in two of his stakes winners, while we also see
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e noted that Captivant’s damsire is Commands. He is a son of Danehill that is becoming less common in pedigrees, although remaining a lovely influence and especially interesting as he is a grandson of Eight Carat. Breeding to this specific influence could have success although we must be careful to ensure that this is not too close in a mare’s pedigree. Using daughters of Pierro may prove successful although this must be tempered by the fact that we are unlikely to see many of these that do not carry lines of Danehill. While this may prove beneficial in the long run, it changes the strategy and sees a very different type of mating than if we can find Eight Carat without a line of Danehill in the pedigree. Lonhro may prove a better option although again it will not be that easy to find his daughters that do not also carry a line of Danehill.
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Last Tycoon and Fusaichi Pegasus duplicated in two of his better progeny. It is possible that a good strategy would be to pursue some inbreeding in his matings, although we should be very cautious how this is used.
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Avery different strategy could be pursued by finding daughters of Headwater. It results in a heavily inbred mating that is likely to lack stamina, but perhaps there could be at least on of these mares that are worth pursuing for the stallion. These will be few and far between and a much safer strategy is likely to be to breed to other Northern Dancer line stallions. Sadler’s Wells had significant success with Danehill and there is no shortage of mares from these lines like High Chaparral, So You Think and Galileo to name a few. We also have the Storm Cat, Dehere and Last Tycoon lines as well as plenty of others, many of which stood in NSW. There are also a lot of emerging lines that may suit with Deep Impact now making a mark locally and being another line that could be worth pursuing.
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hile Captivant goes to stud with the hype of his sire pushing his career, breeders will likely need to take some care in getting the best out of the stallion. He is certainly a type that should get his share of speedy youngsters and quality yearlings but as always, his future will depend on him getting enough quality mares of the right type. It would be fitting to see such a strong colonial female line brought to the fore by this young stallion. This is especially important when we look at the history of Kia Ora stud and the influential role it has played in the development of the Australian thoroughbred.
CAPTIVANT who has 13.67% inbreeding is the most heavily inbred of all of the pedigrees we have looked at this month. The pedigree though sees all of these duplications within five generations being sex-balanced which is notable when we see stallions like Danehill, Danzig and Marscay who we regularly see repeated in pedigrees through same sex duplications. It is possible that this will see Captivant play an important role in the future by introducing these relatively rare daughters of Danehill and Danzig, and sons of Marscay.
